Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm
by Project Arashi
Summary: Threads of fate interweave in a tapestry of adventure and magic, colliding with an ancient evil unknown to the minds of men. As destiny plays its hand, chosen heroes must ally with wings of white to protect life itself. An epic Love Hina Negima crossover.
1. Foreword

Hoi all, Chris Ganale here, back and setting _Kuro Arashi_ where it belongs in the group pen name dedicated to the Kuroverse. Why's it taken so long to get it moved when I sent out the intent of move announcements months ago? Well, because I was lazy. But as a prize for you guys being so patient, you're rewarded with the newest chapter of Kuro coming out at the tail end of the move.

A few things before we get into that. Yeah, as you can see, all I've done is copy-pasta, remove Interlude I, and remove some author's notes. I was lazy, and doing this at 5:30 in the morning, sue me. The only major changes would be adding timestamps anyway, which, truthfully, is rather low on my list of priorities in any event. I think you guys would much rather me advance the plot than sort out the timeline and add timestamps to previous chapters, amirite? I thought I was.

Some notes about the setup of the "Chosen Heroes." As should be obvious by now, each Chosen Hero has a specific character class that they personify. This list of classes has mostly been taken from _Final Fantasy XI_, with the exception of some classes, such as Haruka's Mediator class (which...really isn't much to it, I'm afraid), and the upcoming Mimic/Mime class that will debut in about six chapters. Two guesses who gets that one, and you guys won't need to use both of 'em. In any case, you'll notice several prominent classes (summoner, paladin, and ninja, to name a few) are missing from the Kuro crew's repetoire. Fear not, for in the next three chapters, not one, but_ six_ of the missing classes will be revealed. Yes, there will be at least one directly out of Negima, and all of the others (and I do mean _all_ of them) will be OCs from the Mahora environment.

Upcoming plots. A few astute readers will notice the special work and detail given to Chao's backstory and my efforts in completing _Future Perfect_. Yes, that means none other than Mahorafest is coming our way. Look for it to begin in _two_ chapters. We're setting a blazing pace to get to the ever-epic Mages vs. Mars battle, and we look to have it completed by the time that Negima volume 17 comes out Stateside.

With that done, the foreword is complete, and you old readers can skip right ahead to the newest chapter, _Mists of Morning_. Newcomers can proceed directly to the next chapter and immerse yourselves in the epic of _Kuro Arashi: The Black Storm_. Please check your sanity at the door.


	2. Midnight Rendezvous

_"That night changed everything. It was the start of everything."  
_- Naru Narusegawa; 'Spreading My Wings'

**Chapter I:  
Midnight Rendezvous**

_July 25, 2006  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
2246 hours, local time_

Evening at the Hinata dormitory. The sun had long since set behind the mountains surrounding the apartments, and the tenants were going about their nightly routine. For some, this routine was meditation. Others retreated to their rooms to tinker with new devices. For a few, the routine consisted of homework or studying.

And for a certain third-year ronin and kanrinin of the apartments, that routine consisted of attempting to study, then shortly finding himself distracted by the occupant of the room above his, and therefore unable to concentrate as he lamented his inability to reveal his true feelings for her.

But this night promised to be a night of routine-breaking. A knock sounded at his door.

Keitaro Urashima, third-year failure on the Tokyo University entrance exams and live-in manager of the Hinata all-girls' dormitory, looked up and called out, "Come in."

The door slid open, and there stood Seno Nakakami, Keitaro's friend of eleven years and master swordsman. As was usual, the taller man wore his "Buddy Jesus" red t-shirt, a pair of simple shorts, and was holding his sheathed sword over his right shoulder. "Yo, Keitaro," he greeted. "Studying hard?"

"You bet!" Keitaro replied, lying through his teeth as he discreetly slid a textbook down to cover the sketch of the tenant above his room that he had been drawing.

There was the sound of something hitting a metal object, and Seno glanced toward his sheathed sword before turning an almost-angry expression back to Keitaro. "You know better," was all he said.

The shorter man sighed and dropped his head onto his desk and the pile of textbooks thereon. "Dammit, it'd be easier to lie to you if you didn't constantly carry that sword with you."

"It's not just Shinaijou that tells me when you're lying, Keitaro," Seno replied, sliding the door shut behind him. "I've known you more than ten years, and you've _never_ been a good liar in the first place."

His expression telling Keitaro that he wasn't quite finished, Seno walked over to his friend and sat down a few feet away, propping his sword up against his desk. He took a single glance up toward the covered hole in Keitaro's ceiling before dropping his voice to a low whisper, "You're thinking about Naru again?"

Before Keitaro even opened his mouth, Seno calmly drew his sword, Shinaijou, from its sheath and laid the blade across his knees. Where one would expect to find an immaculately-polished and razor-edged blade, one would instead find a weapon with a dim appearance, and jagged, poorly-maintained edges. The entire blade was covered in liquid, and seemed to weep openly. The would-be Tokyo University, or Todai, as it was nicknamed, student stared in horror at the condition of the blade.

"Don't know how much more lying Shinaijou can take," Seno said matter-of-factly. "You know I would've stabbed it into the ground for dramatic effect, like I usually do, but it no doubt would've snapped in half."

Keitaro didn't know what to say. He knew, as did everyone else living in the Hinata apartments, that the blade Shinaijou, or Truth and Love, was a weapon that reacted to honesty and love. Exposed to honesty and love, it would strengthen, and it would glow with an inner light brighter than the sun. Exposed to dishonesty or heartbreak, it would weaken to the point of breaking, its shine would diminish to nothing, and it would weep tears for those whose hearts were in pain.

"Why… does it not shine?" Keitaro asked. "Does that mean my love for Naru isn't real?"

"Idiot," Seno spat, resisting the urge to slap his friend with the flat of the blade. "You've seen Shinaijou shine like the sun whenever you and Naru are enjoying each others' presence. But in some cases, like this one, the heartache overwhelms the existing love."

Sighing, Keitaro closed the calculus book he had been trying to study and pushed it aside, revealing the sketch of a smiling Naru standing on a path shadowed by blooming sakura trees. It would have been a near-perfect photo-representation of her, save for the pair of beautiful angelic wings rising from her shoulder blades. Picking up his pencil, he began to make idle touch-ups to the sketched image.

Behind the two men, the plywood covering over the hole up into Naru's room slid away silently and the aforementioned young woman poked her head down through the hole, a question forming on her lips. But when she saw that Keitaro was talking to Seno, she decided that it could wait.

"You're right, Seno," he said after a while. "I can't take my mind off her. I love her more than I can put into words. I want to be with her so badly that it hurts. But all I am to her is a lazy, stupid, perverted idiot."

Halfway to returning the plywood over the hole, Naru had stopped and leaned back into Keitaro's room, silently observing the conversation. As Keitaro continued to pour his soul out to his best friend, the swordsman slowly and calmly turned his head just enough so that he made eye contact with Naru out of his left eye. The Todai hopeful froze, expecting him to reveal her presence, praying that he hadn't seen her, but when she saw his left eye blink shut for a moment before he turned back to the conversation, she knew that she was, for the time being at least, safe.

For nearly five minutes, she watched in silence as Keitaro kept talking, telling Seno everything about how he didn't mind when Naru launched him into low Earth orbit because she seemed happy when she was hurting him, to the fact that he had stopped caring about his promise girl long ago and only wanted to be with Naru, and finally to the miserable, soul-crushing statement that he thought himself to be wholly unworthy of Naru's love.

In the silence that followed in the wake of that comment, she could have sworn that she had heard Keitaro's heart break. Tears rose to her eyes, and she did nothing to impede them. For hurting him so deeply, she deserved a much harsher punishment than the dizziness she was experiencing from the blood flow rushing to her head.

Then, she realized that she _had_ heard something break. It had been Seno's sword, which now laid on the ground, its blade separated into three distinct pieces, each one still weeping almost audibly.

"There you have it," Seno said quietly, gesturing off-hand to the shattered pieces of his sword. "The words you just uttered destroyed Shinaijou. Since you are well aware that only an extremely-severe lie can do that to Shinaijou, even in its previously-weakened state, then you know that the belief that you are unworthy of Naru is complete, as they say in America, _bullshit_."

Keitaro simply stared at the remains of the sword, too stunned for coherent thought. "I… you… but, she… how…?"

"Shinaijou is a holy weapon," the swordsman replied. "It can peer into the hearts and minds of those around it. It knows your feelings, and _it knows hers_. You are not unworthy of Naru, Keitaro. Deep in your heart, you know this to be true, even if your mind will not admit it. And deep in _her_ heart, she also knows it."

Nodding slowly, Keitaro looked up at his old friend. "What do I do? How can I fix Shinaijou? How do I make everything right?"

"Your heart already knows," Seno answered, scooping up the sword shards and setting them on Keitaro's desk. "But for the sake of things, you need only tell her."

The kanrinin's head hit his desk with enough force to knock over the sword shards. "I've _tried_ that, Seno," he moaned. "More times than I can count. But I always get interrupted, or I always have one of my _stupid_ accidents."

"You didn't have me helping you before," Seno stated, as though discussing the weather. He picked up the smallest sword shard and set it in Keitaro's hand. "I will ensure that you are not interrupted, and this shard of Shinaijou will protect you from mishaps."

The swordsman stood, picking up the hilt of his sword and sliding what little fragment of blade remained attached to it into the sheath. "If you will indulge my usual knack for borrowing lines from pop culture genre…" He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, he spoke in the harsh, yet honest, tones of a certain red-clad ronin warrior from a popular role-playing game. "This is your story! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow!"

Still looking in, Naru could feel a large drop of sweat forming on the back of her head. _Seno really likes his video games…_ she thought to herself. Then, she blinked. _Ah, crap! They're coming up here! I'd better act like I was studying!_ With that, she withdrew her head and replaced the plywood cover, all in silence.

Down in Keitaro's room, Seno picked up the sketch book lying on Keitaro's desk and looked over the sketch his friend had drawn of Naru, then nodded appreciatively and handed it over. "Show her this, too. It may help. After all, she's your angel, right?"

"I…I really appreciate you doing this for me, Seno, but I don't think–"

"No, don't think!" the swordsman snapped, turning his friend around and pushing him out of the room, then down the hall toward the stairs. "Use your heart, boy, not your head!"

After a few seconds of Seno pushing him down the hall, Keitaro took control of his own path and marched toward the stairs, putting the Shinaijou shard in his pocket as he kept his sketchbook tucked firmly under his arm. The pair climbed the stairs in silence, and as they reached the top, the swordsman motioned his older friend on ahead.

"Don't want her to know I put you up to this, eh? Besides, I'll keep watch and make sure no one interrupts you."

Nodding confidently, Keitaro walked down the hall to Naru's room and knocked on her doorframe. "Naru, are you in?"

"Yes," her voice replied from inside almost immediately. "Come in."

With his free hand, Keitaro slid open the door, stepped inside, then slid it shut behind him and turned toward his secret love interest. She sat at her heated desk, several textbooks open on the desktop, and a pencil in her hand. She regarded him with a look of curiosity and, unless his ability to read emotions was off again, apprehension.

"Do you need something?" she asked quietly.

He shook his head and sat down at the desk across from her, laying the sketchbook down on the ground beside him. "No, I just wanted to talk to you."

Naru nodded, then set her pencil down and took the time to close each one of the textbooks on her desk. She then laced her fingers together and leaned forward onto the desk, looking him in the eye. "What did you want to talk about?"

This was it. The moment of truth. Keitaro felt heat beginning to rise to his face. "W-well, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time…"

Outside, in the hallway, Seno leaned against the doorframe of Naru's room, his head tilted slightly toward the door so that he could hear what was being said within. _So far, so good,_ he thought. _Keitaro's getting right to the point this time. Guess my little Auron pep-talk did him some good. Now all I've gotta do is keep anyone from barging in…_

As those words passed his mind, he heard the whisper of a door sliding open and looked down the hall to see Motoko Aoyama stepping out of her room, a faint cloud of incense smoke escaping into the hallway. The swordswoman saw him standing in the hallway, and as if it had been preordained by Fate, began walking toward him.

_Ah, test number one,_ he thought. _She would by far be the most difficult one to keep from interfering anyway, so it's just as well._

"Seno," Motoko called out, "what are–"

The simple raising of his left index finger against his lips silenced her question as he stood up from leaning against the doorframe and walked toward her. He stopped with barely a millimeter of space separating them, and leaned forward to whisper into her ear, "I finally had enough of the way that Keitaro and Naru are the only ones in this house who _can't_ see how much they love each other, so I arranged things so that they can finally get their feelings out to one another."

The first thing to hit Motoko upon that revelation was a pang of jealousy. Seno was sharp, she _knew_ he was aware that she also had feelings, however well-guarded, for Keitaro. And she was jealous that the swordsman would go to such trouble to set up Keitaro and Naru, and leave her high and dry.

But if there was one thing that Motoko was known for, it was that she often resorted to violence, usually against Keitaro, to salve her wounded pride. In two seconds, a fire of anger lit in her eyes and she reached her right hand down to the sword held at her left hip.

"You have the audacity and ignorance to see to it that Naru is left alone with that vile pervert?" she hissed, somehow managing to keep her voice low. Perhaps she, too, wanted to see Keitaro where he was truly happy, with Naru. Almost immediately, she shivered violently, shaking off that thought, and moved to step past Seno to get into Naru's room and break up whatever was going on in there.

She never got there.

Seno's right hand caught her left arm with a firm, yet gentle, grip and turned her away from Naru's room. She spun around, prepared to verbally lash out at the laid-back swordsman, but found herself lacking the ability to speak as she found his lips crushed against hers.

Her eyes widened in shock and she tried to call a dozen techniques to mind to throw the audacious man away from her, but none came. Some distant part of her mind gave her the impression that, even if she could find and choose a technique, her body would not have gone along with her plan to get him off her.

Slowly, unconsciously, she relaxed into the kiss. Her eyes slipped shut as she raised herself on the balls of her feet so that he didn't have to bend his head down so far. Her hands lifted away from her sheathed blade, her left clutching his t-shirt while her right settled on his shoulder.

After a full minute, the need for oxygen parted them and Seno leaned back, looking down at her apologetically. "I'm sorry," he told her. "I can't allow anyone to interrupt K–"

Now it was her turn to cut off his speech as she raised up again, pulling him to her as she kissed him with a sense of urgency. "I wouldn't dream of it," she whispered into his mouth.

Back inside Naru's room, Keitaro was beginning to panic. So far, he had once again been unable to just come right out and say what he felt for her, and he could feel his chance slipping between his fingers. But to his surprise, Naru wasn't becoming irritated or impatient with his mutterings, instead simply waiting patiently with a small smile on her face.

The three-year ronin sighed internally. _Time to pull out the big guns,_ he thought to himself, borrowing a line he heard Seno say a lot. He lowered his hand to the floor, picking up the sketchbook, still turned to the sketched page of an angelic Naru, and handed the book across to her.

She took the book from him, looked at the sketch, and gasped audibly. The level of detail astounded her, but that was not what caused her reaction. It was the fact that, after all she had done to him, he still loved her enough to draw her in such a beautiful scene, and as an angel no less. Slowly, she pressed the drawing against her chest, as if trying to assimilate the wonderful and forgiving person in the drawing into herself. Tears fell from her eyes, darkening the fabric of her sweatpants.

Keitaro winced as he saw that reaction, assuming that his drawing had upset her in some way. "Naru, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to–"

"Shh," she said, reaching out her left hand and silencing him by touching her index finger to his lips. "It's okay." Slowly setting the sketchbook down on the desk between them, she wiped her eyes with both hands, then looked up at Keitaro and gave him a watery smile. "I heard, you know. What you were talking about with Seno before you came up here. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just… I'm sorry, Keitaro."

"Sorry?" he asked. "For what?"

The young woman stood up and walked around the table to sit beside him, then draped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder. "For _everything_," she whispered. "For eavesdropping on you tonight, for always hurting you, for never listening when you tell me that it was only an accident." She squeezed him tightly, her tears soaking into his shirt. "For making you believe that you're not worth being with me."

Cautiously, slowly, Keitaro enfolded her in a gentle hug, rubbing her back through the material of her night shirt. "Naru…?"

"You are such a wonderful person, Keitaro," she continued. "You never even think of yourself, you only care about the rest of us. You're kind, compassionate, forgiving. You've never once raised a hand against any of us, even when we're unjustified in hurting you. I… I…"

A dozen or more ways in which she could finish that statement flashed through Keitaro's head, but he quickly settled on the two most likely candidates. He gave her a comforting squeeze, then said, "Don't worry, Naru. I forgive you. I'll always forgive you."

She replied with a half-laugh, half-sob, then closed her eyes and buried her face against his neck. "That's not what I was going to say, Keitaro," she said. "Even though I am always grateful to have your forgiveness. But what I wanted to say, Keitaro, is that… I love you."

Those three words were all he had ever wanted to hear her say for the past countless months of his life. With those three words, all the months of pain he had suffered as a result of his bad luck vanished as if they had never existed, and the crushing weight of his inadequacy shattered and faded into the abyss.

As she said those words, it was as if the very light of Heaven itself had come down from on high to fill the room with its calm, comforting light. But then he noticed Naru looking toward her door with wide eyes.

He turned as well, careful not to disrupt their current positioning, and saw the brilliant light coming from outside in the hallway, silhouetting two figures standing extremely close together. Both knew that the light had to be coming from Shinaijou, which meant that the taller of the two figures was Seno. But who was the other one?

Suddenly, realization blossomed on Naru's face. "Is that…" she breathed, "…Motoko?"

Outside, Motoko didn't know if it was their third or thousandth kiss. All she knew was that the taller swordsman effortlessly took her breath away with the slightest touch of his lips. Standing in his arms, she felt warm and protected, in a way she had not felt since her childhood.

As they parted once more for air, they both noticed the brilliant light emanating from Seno's left side. With trembling fingers, Motoko reached down and grasped the hilt of his blade, drawing it slowly and respectfully from its sheath. With every inch of it that was revealed, the light in the hallway only brightened.

After a few moments, the full length of Shinaijou had been revealed, its restored blade shining like a mirror as it gave off the intense, but soothing light. Gently, she pressed a finger against the blade, sensing not one imperfection in it.

Seno smiled and laid his right hand on her left. "That means that the mission is complete," he said, then looked over his right shoulder toward Naru's room.

Motoko looked as well, and smiled when she saw Keitaro and Naru peeking out of the door, both of their faces a study in surprise. A blush rising to her face, she looped her right arm through Seno's left and leaned against the taller man.

No words were exchanged between the two couples, but the serene, comfortable expression they shared on all their faces said more than words ever could. After a few moments, the two groups parted, Seno and Motoko heading for the swordswoman's room, while Naru and Keitaro retreated back into her room.

--

A few doors down from Naru's room, Motoko and Seno serenely sat upon her floor, quietly discussing the events of the night, and how it would change the days ahead of them. During a lull in the conversation, Motoko stood up and walked around the room, replacing spent incense candles and lighting the new ones. A very thin smoke filled the room, and the lightning from the candles made it seem very romantic. Unknowingly, her face reddened at that thought.

Taking a deep breath of the rising smoke, she stared into the flames of the last candle she had lit, wishing that it would burn away all the impurities of her soul and reveal to her the true desires of her heart. "Thank you for stopping me from interrupting them," she said, turning toward Seno. "It is wrong of me to continually prevent their happiness. My jealousy should not come between them."

The swordsman tilted his head to one side, studying her under the light. "You're very beautiful, Motoko."

If she hadn't known she had been blushing before, the rising heat in her face certainly indicated to her that she was now. That one simple sentence stunned her into silence. All she could do was stare at him, his countenance made even more handsome by the candelight that flickered over him.

_How can he have such an affect on me?_ she asked herself. _I can barely look at him without my heart beating faster. Is it Keitaro that I love? Or is it Seno?_ Her eyes then fell on the sheathed Shinaijou sitting beside him. _There is one way I can find out…_

She opened her mouth to ask him for his sword, but then stopped and clicked her jaw shut. If she took the sword in her hand and spoke both Keitaro's and Seno's names, comparing the resulting brilliance of the blade, she would most certainly know whom she was truly in love with. But that would be taking the easy way out, and Motoko Aoyama never took the easy way out of anything.

"Seno?" she asked quietly. "Do you love me?"

"From almost the moment I met you," he replied, immediately and without a second thought.

Her eyes widened slightly. _The entire time…?_ Memories flashed through her mind; training and sparring sessions with the taller swordsman, laughter-filled meals with him and the rest of the Hinata tenants, passing encounters in the hallways. As she watched these memories, she paid careful attention to the way he acted and carried himself around her, as opposed to others. This time, she noticed subtle changes in his stance and attitude that revealed his feelings for her, affection at first, then graduating and deepening into love.

She looked down ashamedly, her face flushing deeper. _He has loved me all this time, and I have been so caught up in my feelings for Keitaro. I wonder, did Naru feel this way just earlier tonight?_

"You have known about my feelings for Keitaro," she said quietly, too ashamed to look at him. "You're observant, you don't miss these things. I can't imagine how much pain I've given you, for you to love me this entire time, knowing that my heart belonged to Keitaro."

Through her peripheral vision, she saw Seno stand up and approach her. She tensed, fearing that he would strike her, praying that he would take her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay.

But she felt neither. Not a stinging blow, or a comforting embrace. Without knowing why, she suddenly felt cold.

"Does it?"

The neutral tone in his voice made her wince. _You have always been able to see through me, Seno. You have always known what is in my heart._ "I no longer think so," she whispered.

Her head shot up and she glared at the swordsman, tears streaming down her face. She took the single step that separated them and leaned against him, her head resting on his chest. Neither lifted their arms to embrace the other.

"Keitaro passed my heart to you without he or I being aware of it," she said. "My feelings for Keitaro were a warm-up, a practice, for you." She sucked in a deep breath, then looked up into his brilliant green eyes. _Let him be his _own _Shinaijou now._ "Keitaro helped me to open up to others, to embrace my femininity. He taught me how to love, so that I could love _you_."

It was then that he smiled, that loving, damnable smile that made her want to do anything for him. He brought his arms up and wrapped them around her, holding her tightly against him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, a feeling of warm comfort filling her very soul as he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"You are beautiful, my Motoko," he said.

She blushed, and stopped supporting her own weight, sliding down to the floor and pulling Seno down with her. Interlacing her fingers with his own, she laid back on the floor and used their intertwined hands to pull him down to her, lifting only her head to press her lips to his.

--

"I never expected Seno and Motoko to hook up," Keitaro said, scratching his head nervously as he sat down again at Naru's desk.

"I did," Naru replied, sitting down right next to him and slipping her arms around his waist before laying her head on his shoulder. "I've noticed the little looks she gives him, and the way she gets flustered whenever his name is brought up in conversation."

Keitaro smiled and slid a hand gently up and down Naru's back. "It seems we can figure out everyone else's love interests but each other, huh?"

"Yeah, we're both pretty blind about us," she said. Then she sighed and closed her eyes. "Keitaro, how can you care for me as much as you do? I constantly abuse you and call you names, but you find it within your heart to forgive me, and even portray me as an angel."

He turned toward her, wrapping both arms around her and hugging her tightly. "You are an angel to me, Naru," he said. "For you, I would take any amount of pain and smile. I would walk through the fires of Hell just so you wouldn't feel any pain. You're my everything, Naru, my all. I love you, more than I could ever put into words or art."

Holding him tightly against her, she silently cried into his shoulder. "I'm not an angel, Keitaro," she whispered. "Angels do not harm the ones that love them. I promise you, Keitaro. I'll never hurt you again. Never."

"With the way I always screw up, that may not be so easy, Naru," he replied, truthfully.

"I know." She unwrapped herself from him and sat back, staring at him with a fierce determination that was in no way dulled by the tears staining her cheeks. "But I'll never give up. All I need is your help."

"Anything that you need me to do, Naru, I'll do for you," he said, steel underlying his words.

She smiled, then reached up and placed both hands on his cheeks. "I know," she repeated, then leaned forward and kissed him. She felt him relax and lose himself in the kiss almost immediately, but she couldn't do that yet. For the sake of training herself not to hit him for the slightest perceived injustice, she _had_ to stay focused.

Her hands dropped from his face, sliding down his neck, shoulders, and arms to seek out his hands. Taking his right in her left, she maneuvered his hand to her back, then slowly began pushing it down her body, trying hard not to shiver at the sensation of his fingers sliding down her back. His hand passed her waist, and she sent it down further, beyond the point where her instincts began to call for her to slug him.

To his credit, Keitaro seemed to unconsciously realize where his hand was and sought to either bring it back up or pull it away entirely. Naru would have none of it, however, and seized his hand by the wrist, forcing it down onto her rear. Even though she had planned the contact, and knew it was coming, his touch still caused her to start slightly.

Slowly, she began to loosen her grip on his hand. Content that he wasn't going to move it again, she took his other hand and also maneuvered it onto her body. A warm sensation shot through her as she settled his fingers onto her breast.

Once more, his body realized where his hand was and tried to get the offending appendage away from where it was. And again, Naru wouldn't let him. Deep down, she knew the fact that, after she had deliberately placed his hands in prime groping positions, he tried to remove his hands rather than grope meant that he was not remotely the pervert they had always made him out to be.

_My Keitaro,_ Naru thought to herself, letting go of his hands and wrapping her arms around his neck. _Such a noble soul. He doesn't have one perverted bone in his body._ As she kissed him with a passion she didn't know she possessed, she likewise began to lose herself in their kiss.

A few moments later, the need for air beckoned the two to part. As they did so, and both of them came back to their senses, Keitaro very consciously noticed where exactly his hands were placed. All the blood rushed to his face as his mind began to dream up dozens of elaborate ways that he was going to meet his end in the next few minutes.

Naru, herself, had not been immune to surprise when she'd regained a sense of her surroundings outside of Keitaro's lips and noticed his hands. It then took her another second to remember that she'd put his hands where they were, to see if she could train herself to think through a situation instead of just react.

She smiled upon realizing that she _had_ thought through it, because God knew that had she woken up just a few days ago to find one of his hands on her rear and the other on her breast, she would have killed him right where he stood. But now, she realized with a blush that it just felt _right_ to have his hands where they were.

Focusing her eyes on Keitaro, and noticing that his entire face was red, she knew that there were only seconds left until he panicked and tried to get away from her. She tightened her arms around his neck and pressed her forehead against his. "Keitaro," she said.

Flinching, his hands rocketed away from her body as he tried vainly to free himself from her grip. "I-I'm s-sorry, Naru!" he stammered. "I d-didn't m-mean to…"

She silenced him with a soft kiss. "Don't be afraid, Keitaro," she said, dropping light, fleeting kisses on his face. "It wasn't you. I put your hands on me, to force myself to think when you touch me, instead of just acting. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

He seemed to recover himself and gave her a smile. "Don't apologize, Naru," he said. "I understand."

Smiling, she kissed along his jawline. "Can I ask you a favor, Kei?" she asked, testing out the sound of the nickname that had suddenly appeared in her mind. Just like his touch, the name felt so right to her. "Well, two, actually."

"Anything for you."

"First, put your hands back where they belong."

At first, he thought his hands had acted of their own accord to touch her again, but when he felt them held ramrod straight at his sides, he was confused. Then, he realized exactly what she meant by that and his face reddened again.

"Please?" she all but begged, kissing him just below his left ear.

With a slow nod, he raised his trembling hands. His right hand slipped around her waist, then slid down to rest lightly on her rear end. As his left hand neared its intended destination, it trembled even harder. Pausing just inches away, he looked up at her with questioning eyes.

She gave him the most loving smile she could muster. "It's okay," she said.

Nodding, he clenched his hand into a fist until it stopped trembling, then unclenched his hand and softly placed it on her breast. Her breath caught in her throat at his touch, then she smiled and kissed him softly.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" she asked him. "And see? I didn't even _think_ about hitting you."

He smiled as well and kissed her nose. "What was the other favor?"

Instead of answering, she used her arms, still wrapped around his neck, to pull him along with her as she stood up and walked backwards, heading toward her futon. By the look on his face, he knew where she was taking him, but his expression also said that he trusted her implicitly.

Slowly, carefully, she guided the two of them down until they were laying on her futon, facing one another. Only then did she allow him to move his hands to assume a more comfortable position, the two snuggled up together with her head pillowed on his chest, and his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Stay with me tonight," she said.


	3. A Bright New Day

_"Life was better and brighter from that morning on, even considering all that lay ahead."  
_- Keitaro Urashima; 'Ronin's Paradise'

**Chapter II:  
A Bright New Day**

_July 26, 2006  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0556 hours, local time_

As dawn broke the next morning, the sun's rays gently caressed the Hinata apartments, unaware of the changes that had occurred while it had slept. As the tenants of the apartment building rose into the new day, everyday routines were once more underway. Shinobu Maehara was already hard at work on the morning breakfast, giving a little extra effort, just because some inner voice told her she should.

Mitsune Konno, or Kitsune to her friends, meandered into the dining hall, for once not smelling of her morning dose of sake. She yawned heartily, then scratched her head and plopped down in her usual seat.

The front doors of the apartment opened and Haruka Urashima, Keitaro's aunt, wandered into the building. There was still another hour before her tea shop opened for the day, which left plenty of time for one of Shinobu's excellent breakfasts. Pausing at the door just long enough to crush her cigarette into the ash tray beside the entrance, she walked over to the breakfast table and dropped the newspaper onto it, taking the main section for herself as Kitsune grabbed the sports section to see the results of the last horse race she'd bet on.

Kaolla Su trudged into the commons area, still partially asleep, with the hot springs turtle Tama-chan perched on her head. The young girl flopped onto the couch, causing Tama-chan to flip into the air and fly around in search of a new post, and turned on a morning cartoon. Knowing Su, it likely involved giant mechs of some kind.

Upstairs, in the room above the kanrinin's, Naru slowly opened her eyes as a beam of sunlight crossed over her face. She felt warmer, more peaceful than she had in a long time, and for a moment, the reason eluded her.

And then her eyes focused, or her far-sighted vision at least tried to, on the figure lying in her futon, his arms wrapped securely and protectively around her. For the briefest of instants, her instincts screamed _KILL_ at her, but she effortlessly crushed down that part of her subconscious before it could take control of her actions.

Smiling, she slid her right hand up Keitaro's face and gently brushed her fingers across his face. Then she kept reaching, her hand groping on her desk for her glasses, her movement inadvertently burying Keitaro's head in her bosom. Her fingers finally secured her glasses, but before she could move her arm, she heard Keitaro mumble something.

_He probably thinks he's dreaming,_ she thought to herself with a grin. Slipping her right arm around the back of his neck, she innocently whispered, "What did you say, Kei?"

"I said either I'm dreaming or I've died and gone to Heaven," he replied, his voice still muffled due to his face being pressed into her chest. "Or maybe it wasn't a dream, and this was my last memory before being shot into space."

Naru giggled and hugged him against her. "You've always thought of me as an angel," she said. "So what would you say if I told you you're not dreaming, and that I decided to come down from Heaven to be with you?"

"I would consider myself the most blessed man in existence."

She kissed his forehead and grinned at him. "Then consider yourself blessed, Keitaro," she said, calling his name in a sing-song tone. "You are wide awake and really in my bed. And I have no intention of taking you out of it by any means."

It took a full ten seconds for that sentence to sink into his head, during which time Naru amusedly watched the varying facial expressions flashing through his face, everything from panic to elation. Then the panic returned as the concept sank in that they had spent the entire night together, in the same bed.

The same thought crossed Naru's mind, and she shifted her body slightly, feeling the resistance of her clothing against the futon mattress and her sheets. Everything was still in place. She slid down so that their faces were even with one another, her arms still wrapped around his neck as she leaned in and kissed him softly. "Don't worry," she said. "We didn't do anything. We still have all our clothes on."

He relaxed at that statement. Some distant part of her mind noted that, a few days ago, she probably would've been offended at his relief that they hadn't done anything, her ego and self-depreciation taunting her with the insane notion that she wasn't good enough for him. But she realized, with perfect clarity, that he was relieved because at this stage in their relationship, it would have been giving in to passion and lust, and would not have been as meaningful or special as it was supposed to be.

A shiver ran through her as she thought of just how much different she was now. Keitaro was like a flame, burning away all the smoke and mirrors of her soul until she was able to see herself and the world around her clearly. With every moment she spent in his arms, her perceptions came more and more clearly until…

_Two children played in a sandbox together, patting at a mound of sand that looked strangely like a sand igloo. But neither child cared how their creation turned out, all they cared about was that they were together and having fun. The little boy was very obviously the five-year old Keitaro, but the identity of the little girl escaped Naru._

"_Hey, Kei-kun," the little girl said. "Did you know that if two people who love each other get accepted into Tokyo U, they'll live happily ever after?"_

_The little Keitaro looked at the girl with wide eyes. "Really, Mu-chan?"_

_A sharp spike of pain cut through Naru's heart at that nickname. The girl playing with Keitaro, the promise girl from his memories, was named Mu-chan. And that, she clearly realized, was a shortening of Mutsumi Otohime. Mutsumi truly was Keitaro's promise girl._

_But he loved her, Naru, didn't he? He had said as much to her last night. And she loved him as well. Without understanding why, she focused back on the vision before her._

"_That's right, Kei-kun!" the little Mutsumi said, smiling happily. She stood up from where she'd been playing, then walked over to a corner of the sandbox to retrieve her Liddo-kun doll. "So I want you to make me a promise, Kei-kun."_

"_Sure thing," little Keitaro said._

_Mutsumi sat back down in the sandbox and handed her Liddo-kun to Keitaro. "I want you to promise me that you and Na-chan will get into Tokyo U and live happily ever after!"_

_Naru was floored. This couldn't be right. Keitaro always said that his promise girl had wanted him to get into Tokyo University with _her_, not another girl. This had to just be a product of her imagination. There was no way… was there?_

_Keitaro looked down at the stuffed doll, then back up at Mutsumi. "But what about you, Mu-chan?"_

_Little Mutsumi gave him that warm, head-tilted-to-one-side smile that Naru recognized from seeing the older Mutsumi give a thousand times. "I'll be happy that you and Na-chan will be happy together," she replied. "You're both my best friends, and we can all go to Tokyo U, but you and Na-chan have to go _together_, okay?"_

_Keitaro smiled and held out his right hand toward Mutsumi, his pinky finger extended. "I'll do it, Mu-chan!" he said, the tenacity and determination of the adult Keitaro underlying the five year old's words. "I'll get into Tokyo U with Na-chan and live happily ever after!"_

_Little Mutsumi absolutely beamed as she hooked her pinky finger around his, sealing the promise. As they did so, the vision of the past began to fade around Naru. Soon, all she could see were faint shapes in the white mist._

"_Hey, Mu-chan!" she heard little Keitaro call out. "What do I do with this Liddo-kun?"_

_Mutsumi giggled, but when she replied, it was her adult voice that Naru heard, "You give it to Naru, silly. That way she'll know that you love her."_

With that, the real world, her room, and Keitaro returned to her vision. As she focused on his face, she saw that he had a pleased expression on his face, that his eyes were out of focus. Was he having a vision too?

Her heart skipped a beat. _Is he having… the same vision? Will he know that even though Mutsumi is his promise girl, she made him promise to be with me?_

Carefully, she extracted herself from his arms, slid out of her futon, and padded over to retrieve the Liddo-kun doll she had been given so long ago. Giving the stuffed toy a tight squeeze and kiss on the head, she walked back over to the futon and slipped back into it, and into Keitaro's arms, placing the Liddo-kun between them.

After a few moments, his eyes focused on her again. "Huh? Wha? Sorry, I spaced out again."

She smiled. "What did you dream about?"

"I dreamt about the day I made my promise fifteen years ago," he replied. "But this time, it was different. It wasn't how I remembered." At Naru's curious look, he continued. "I actually remembered her name this time!" he said excitedly. "But, the promise was different from what I thought it was. It turns out that I didn't promise to get into Tokyo U with her."

Naru held her breath. Some part of her waited for her to wake up, for this wonderful dream to end. But with his next words, she knew that she was living in reality.

"I promised her that I would get into Tokyo U with our friend, Na-chan," he said. "The little girl from my memories may have been my promise girl, but the girl I was promised _to_ was, no, _is_ you, Naru. She even gave me her Liddo-kun to–"

He was cut off in midsentence by Naru crushing her lips against his, kissing him with the passion of fifteen years of lost time. As they trapped one another in their arms, Liddo-kun was forgotten between them.

--

Motoko opened her eyes slowly, her right arm draped across her forehead, and stared up at the ceiling. Sunlight streamed through the rice paper door of her room, dancing through the light haze of incense smoke drifting across the ceiling. She took a deep breath, inhaling the pleasant scent of vanilla-apple and smiling as it brought her closer to full alertness.

That was when she realized that vanilla-apple was not among the scented incense that she possessed. Perhaps Seno had given it to her? She sat up, realizing that she was lying on her futon, rather than the floor. _I thought I fell asleep on the floor. Maybe last night was just a dream?_

She sighed. After finally having come to terms with her feelings and who she truly loved, it would be a shame for it all to have been a dream. She reached her hand over to the floor beside the futon to provide her with leverage to get up, and her hand fell on what she instinctively knew to be a sheathed blade.

Looking over to see if she had accidentally left the Hina blade lying on the floor again, she gasped when she recognized the distinctive hilt of the Shinaijou beneath her palm. _If his sword is here, then that means…_

She lifted her eyes to the other side of the room, where she saw Seno standing at her dresser, staring into the burning incense candles he must have brought in at some point after she had fallen asleep. For a moment, a sudden spike of fear shot through her as he realized that there was any number of things he could have done _to_ her while she was asleep, since he had clearly been awake at some point during the night when she had not.

Shaking her head violently, she pushed those thoughts away. Not Seno. Seno wouldn't do that to her. He was a man of honor who lived and died by his morality. Deep down inside, she _knew_ that he had acted the perfect gentleman last night once she had fallen asleep.

"Good morning," she greeted tentatively.

The taller swordsman looked over to her and smiled. "Good morning, Motoko," he said. "Did you sleep well?"

She found herself smiling as well. The sheer warmth she felt just being in his presence astounded her. "Yes, thank you. And you?"

"How could I have slept otherwise, next to a goddess?"

Her face immediately colored, more at his compliment than at the notion they had shared her bed. She climbed out of the bed and stood up, walking over to Seno and slipping her arms around his waist as she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Flatterer," she whispered to him.

"The truth isn't flattery," he replied matter-of-factly, turning to face her and enfolding her in his warm embrace as he kissed the top of her head.

Before Motoko could reply, they both heard Shinobu's voice call out from downstairs, "Breakfast!"

--

Kitsune and Haruka were still reading the newspaper, but had cleared room for the breakfast dishes to be placed on the table. Su jumped over the back of the couch, then bounced across the commons room into her seat. She picked up her utensils and gave Tama-chan, perched on the back of Keitaro's chair, an evil eye. "I wonder if turtles are good for breakfast?" she mused aloud, extending her fork toward the flying turtle.

Haruka picked up one of her chopsticks and smacked the back of Su's hand, stopping her breakfast explorations. At the younger girl's yelp, Haruka calmly put her chopstick back down and put her hand back on the paper, all without looking up from behind the black-and-white page.

As Shinobu walked out of the kitchen with the last dish in hand, she looked up to see the last four missing members of the Hinata family coming down the staircase. "Good morning, guys!" she called out to them.

"'Morning, Shinobu!" Keitaro called back, raising his right hand high in the air. "'Morning, everybody!"

"Good morning, everyone," Naru said, smiling happily. Though nobody downstairs could see it, her right hand was holding Keitaro's left, and as she greeted the others, she gave his hand a squeeze.

Motoko bowed her head as she and Seno followed Naru and Keitaro down the stairs. "Good morning," she said. They were all used to the swordswoman greeting them with a smile, but not one of them argued that the look on her face was nothing but outright joy.

"'Sup, folks," Seno said in his usual manner, raising his left hand in that distinctive wave of his, with his thumb and first two fingers raised while he clenched the remaining two fingers in. "Good food this morning, Shinobu? I could smell it all the way down the hallway."

The blue-haired girl nodded emphatically as she placed the last dish on the table. "I worked extra hard on this morning's breakfast," she said. She gave a broad smile as she clasped her hands together in front of her. "So please enjoy it!"

"I already know I will, Shinobu!" Keitaro said. "Nothing starts the day like–"

Cue Keitaro's bad luck.

One misstep as he came down from one of the stairs sent him falling face-first to the ground. He groaned as he rolled over onto his back, his right hand flailing for a grip on something to pull himself up. To compound the bad luck, his holding Naru's hand had brought her down with him, and by what some would consider intelligent design, the timing of her fall was just perfect enough to land her breast on his flailing hand.

Shinobu gasped. Kitsune leered. Su looked oblivious. Seno shook his head, and Motoko was impassive. Haruka looked out from behind her newspaper with a 'Here we go again' expression on her face. It was only obvious that it was time for Keitaro to take another flight on 'Air Naru.'

What happened next shocked everybody.

As the dust settled, silence fell to replace it for several seconds, broken only by Keitaro groaning, "Ow."

With the rest of the apartment's tenants looking on, Naru calmly removed his hand from her breast, then leaned forward to look into his face. "Are you alright, Keitaro?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "What about you? Are you hurt?"

"No, you caught me before I fell," she said, then leaned down and kissed his cheek. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," he said, then climbed to his feet and held out a hand to help her up. "I guess I need to watch my step a little more, huh?"

"Yeah," Naru agreed, taking his hand and his help to stand up. "Good thing nobody got hurt."

Another wave of expression changes passed over the Hinata residents. Shinobu, Kitsune, Su, and Haruka all looked on in shock. Seno looked very pleased with himself, and Motoko smiled appreciatively. Keitaro looked around at all the confused faces and scratched his head nervously. Naru reddened slightly.

"What?" she asked. "Something wrong?"

"We're just wonderin' why y'all didn't put Keitaro into orbit," Kitsune drawled. "Any other time and he'd be landin' in Okinawa right about now."

"It was Eastern China last time…" Keitaro muttered under his breath.

Naru huffed and planted her fists on her hips as she glared at Kitsune, who picked up a cup of tea and began to sip from it. "Excuse me?" she hissed. "You expect me to hit my boyfriend just for a little accident?"

No sooner had the word 'boyfriend' left Naru's mouth than a spray of tea shot out of Kitsune's. "B-b-b-b-_boyfriend_?" she stammered. "When did _that_ happen?"

"Last night," Naru answered, beaming, as she linked her left arm through Keitaro's right. "Keitaro came up to my room and after a little talk we admitted our love for each other." She looked back up the stairs to where Motoko and Seno were still standing, and gave the other couple a wink. "Though I have to admit, it probably wouldn't have happened if Seno hadn't given us the time to talk."

The swordsman waved it off nonchalantly. "Nah, don't go saying it was all because of me," he said. "I just put you guys together and you two did the rest."

"What do you mean that he gave you the time to talk, Naru?" Haruka asked, folding up the newspaper in favor of this far more interesting, and far more newsworthy, conversation.

"He stopped me from interrupting them," Motoko answered.

"Oh?" Kitsune leered, grinning with one eye open. "And just how did he do that?"

Seno grinned in reply, his own causing Kitsune's to falter. "Kinda like this," he said, slipping one arm around Motoko's waist as he swept her feet out from under her. She fell back, letting out a noise of surprise, but he caught her in both arms as she was parallel to the ground, then smiled down at her, leaned in, and kissed her.

Both of Kitsune's eyes were now wide in shock. Su was bouncing up and down in her chair, exclaiming, "Sweep her off her feet! Sweep her off her feet!" Keitaro and Naru both cheered the couple on as Shinobu blushed and Haruka smiled.

After a moment, Seno released Motoko's lips and leaned back, grinning down at her. She fought to regain her breath, then looked up at him as a wicked smile curved across her lips. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled herself up to him and all but assaulted his mouth with hers.

Naru tightened her hold on Keitaro's arm and laid her head against his shoulder as they watched the two sword-wielders before them. "It's good that he found happiness trying to get us together, don't you, Kei?" she asked.

Keitaro nodded and led her toward the table. "It is. And it's good that Motoko's finally happy, too."

Su scooted around to the head of the table so that Keitaro and Naru could sit together, and a few moments later, Seno and Motoko joined the crew, reasonably out of breath. This time it was Haruka who scooted to an adjacent chair to allow the couple to sit together.

"Now I understand why I felt like I needed to work extra hard on breakfast," Shinobu said as they all dug in.

"Because we've got to celebrate everybody getting together!" Su said in between mouthfuls of food. "Good food because everyone's happy!"

Kitsune leaned forward over the table, one eye opened as she stared at the two couples. "Sooo… you guys do _it_ yet?"

Silence.

Keitaro immediately pressed two fingers against his nostrils to prevent the nosebleed he felt was imminent just at the prospect of doing something _else_ with Naru at night other than just sleeping in comfort. As for Naru, her right eye was twitching, her face was bright red, and it was obvious that she was working very hard to avoid turning her physical ire on the fox woman.

"I believe I speak not only for myself and Seno, but Naru and Keitaro as well when I say that what we value in our relationships is love and companionship, and _not_ simple animalistic passion," Motoko said calmly, taking a sip from her tea as if she were discussing the weather outside. She set her cup down, then smiled thinly at Kitsune and added, almost as an afterthought, "Unlike some."

It was silent for another moment after that, then Naru, Keitaro, and Seno burst out laughing. "Nice one, Motoko!" Naru said, giving her friend a thumbs-up.

"As Seno would say, 'Owned!'" Keitaro added.

"I don't know about you guys," Seno said, mimicking the pose on his 'Buddy Jesus' shirt as he pointed at Kitsune, "but we call that getting served where I come from!"

Motoko merely smiled, very pleased with herself.

And soon enough, Kitsune, Su, Shinobu, and Haruka were also laughing as the entire group enjoyed their breakfast. Food, condiments, and stories passed from person to person, adding to the feeling of warmth and family that surrounded the table.

Before long, everyone had finished eating, and for once, there were no hidden heartaches or busy schedules that compelled anyone to leave the table immediately. Sitting with Seno on her left and Kitsune at the end of the table on her right, Haruka leaned back in her chair and smiled. "It's never felt this good at the Hinata before," she said, to the nodding of the others. She looked across the table at Naru and Keitaro, then at Motoko and Seno on her left. "It's like we're all one big family."

"And we've got Seno to thank for that," Kitsune said, raising her tea glass and gesturing to the swordsman. "If y'all hadn't been playin' matchmaker last night, who knows how long it'd have taken for Naru and Keitaro to get hooked up?"

Motoko dropped her hand from the tabletop and laced her fingers through his. "And I certainly wouldn't have found my happiness without you," she agreed.

"Aww, come on, guys, you don't need to put me out like this…" he said.

"It's true!" Shinobu said, sitting on the other side of the table, between Kitsune and Keitaro. "You've helped everybody feel happier since you've been here."

"Even if we sometimes question your methods," Naru said with a grin.

"What do you mean?"

"Like the time you broke Mister Virtual when Kentaro was beating Keitaro in that dating fantasy!" Su said.

"Dating fantasy?" Naru asked.

"You can't fault me for that," Seno told Su. "Poor Keitaro was getting tortured." He tossed a wry smirk across the table to his old friend. "Besides, that fantasy clearly proved to be a sham anyway. Who's the one holding Naru's heart?"

"Wait a minute!" Naru said. "What dating fantasy?"

"Well, time to go open up the teashop," Haruka said, standing up from the table. "Thanks for the wonderful breakfast, Shinobu."

Kitsune stood up as well. "Come on, Shinobu, I'll help with the dishes."

"Okay!"

"Wait a second! Why isn't anyone telling me about this fantasy you're talking about?"

Motoko finished off her tea and stood. "Ready for our morning spar, Seno?"

The swordsman nodded and stood up. "Don't expect me to go easy on you just because we're dating."

"I'd kill you if you did," she replied flatly as the two disappeared upstairs.

Naru whirled on Su, freezing the girl to the spot with her glare. "Su, _what_ dating fantasy?"

"Whoops, look at the time!" Su replied, pointing to a nonexistent watch on her arm, then bounced out of the room. "Got inventions to make!"

That left Keitaro. Naru turned to her boyfriend and posted her fists on her hips. "Keitaro, you'd better tell me what everyone was talking about or you might make me break my promise not to hurt you."

Laughing nervously, the Hinata kanrinin stood up and pulled Naru into a hug. "It's like Seno said," he replied. "I'm the one you love, so it didn't matter."

Pouting out her lower lip, Naru gave him her best puppy dog eyes. "But I want to know…" she whined.

Keitaro smiled and kissed her cheek. "Fine," he said. "You know I can't resist you when you look so cute."

She grinned widely. "I know it!" she exclaimed, then grabbed his hands in both of hers. "Now tell me!"

"Well, Su used that Mister Virtual machine to see who would win your heart on a date, me or Kentaro," he explained. "It turned out that I was a major klutz and knew next to nothing about impressing you, and that Kentaro swept you off your feet with all kinds of major plans that made him sound more like a war general than a boyfriend."

Naru smiled softly and leaned her head to one side. "What'd he do, take me to expensive restaurants?"

"Yeah."

"Buy me souvenirs?"

"From right next door, too."

"Take me on rides that had short wait times?"

"Every one."

"Impress me with a nighttime view from the Ferris wheel?"

"He even said research on girls _proved_ it would impress you."

"And then did he try to steal a kiss from me?"

Keitaro nodded. "He said that only in fantasies would you willingly give a kiss, that in real life you'd want it taken from you forcefully."

Naru laughed incredulously. "He really doesn't know anything, does he?" she asked, then smiled and leaned into Keitaro, looking up into his eyes. "I don't like eating at expensive restaurants. Souvenirs are nice, but our memories are perfectly fine for remembering good times with. Whether it takes hours or a few minutes to get on a ride, it doesn't matter as long as I'm with the one I love. Same goes for the Ferris wheel. Be it sunset, nighttime, or in the middle of the day, it's perfect as long as you're with me. And I would give you a kiss whenever you want one."

Keitaro's mouth worked up and down as his mind fought frantically to come up with something, _anything_, he could say to that. His brain failing him, all he could do was hold her close to him.

Smiling, Naru rested her head on his chest. "In short," she said, "Kentaro may have won his little video game fantasy date with the virtual me. But all he got out of that was a little boost to his confidence." She lifted her head from his chest and looked into his eyes, raising up on her toes to bring her face close to his. "But you, Keitaro Urashima, have won something far more valuable."

"And what would that be?" Keitaro asked, grinning, as he kissed her nose.

She closed her eyes and kissed him, then pulled back just slightly, their lips still in the slightest contact. "You won my heart," she said simply. "Now kiss me, and claim your prize."

Sliding his hand down to the center of her back, Keitaro gently bent her backwards until he held her almost parallel to the ground. "With pleasure, my Naru," he whispered, then pressed his lips fully against hers.


	4. Signs of the Future

_"Things were beginning to fall into place. Truly, the first shadows of the coming darkness, and the first rays of the answering hope, came on that day."  
_- Mutsumi Otohime; 'On a Wing and a Storm'

**Chapter III:  
Signs of the Future**

_July 26, 2006  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0824 hours, local time_

"I thought we'd try something a little different this morning," Seno said.

"That doesn't tell me why you're wearing a blindfold," Motoko replied flatly.

"It's simple," Seno said, turning in the direction of her voice. "I've been wanting to learn Zanshin for a while now."

Unseen through the blindfold over his eyes, Motoko stared blankly at him, blinking confusedly. "Zanshin… the awareness of your surroundings?" she ventured. "I do believe you already have that mastered, Seno."

He chuckled and drew Shinaijou, the glowing light of the blade visible even through the thick black blindfold. "Not quite the kendo version of Zanshin," he replied. "See, I was reading this fanfiction a few weeks ago…"

Motoko slapped her free hand against her forehead. "I should've known…"

"…and in it, the main character lost both of his eyes and couldn't see anymore," the swordsman continued, as if she'd never spoken. "But there was this top-secret project going on by the bad guys, they called it the 'Elemental' project, and it basically was the literal and full infusion of the essence of a Guardian Force into a person. Well, the one that the main character got gave him the ability of Zanshin, or sightless sight."

The swordswoman nodded slowly. She didn't have one clue about Guardian Forces or Elementals or any of that, but his concept of Zanshin made sense. "So, you want to learn how to fight blind."

"Not just fight blind. To be able to use my other senses, hearing and smell and touch, to form a mental image of the world around me." He scratched his head. "It's really a deep concept, and I've never really been good at explaining things, so I'll probably have you read the fanfiction sometime. I can find it easy, the author's pen name is 'Peptuck' so that's not hard to find."

Sometimes, it made perfect sense that Seno and Keitaro were old childhood friends. They seemed to share the ability to 'nerd out' about things from time to time. In Keitaro's case, it was the promise girl of his memories, Naru, and photo booths. For Seno, it was most aspects of pop culture and anything related to video gaming.

"You know, you seem to like to ramble," Motoko said.

"Yeah, I know," Seno replied, scratching the back of his head self-consciously. "Sometimes I do it on purpose, though. Makes people underestimate me, since they're too busy thinking that I've got the collective intelligence of a rusty shovel."

"Rusty…shovel…?"

"Okay, so my cracks could use some work. You're not exactly Miss Wit yourself, you know."

Motoko smiled and shifted herself into a fighting stance. It wasn't her usual straightforward stance, it was one she had admittedly picked up from one of Seno's video games. Supporting her weight on her right foot, she slid her left forward, the toe of her sandal pointed at Seno. She held the Hina blade in her right hand, the curved, sharpened edge of the blade turned toward the ground. Her left hand was raised beside the blade, fingers curled in an almost-beckoning fashion toward her sparring partner.

"I chose to spend more time sharpening my blade than my tongue," she retorted.

"Oooh, feisty," he grinned, still standing in that aloof manner. "I turned you into a quick-mouthed vixen, didn't I?" He likewise slid into a stance, also borrowed from a game. His weight also supported itself on his right foot, but he held his blade in a double-handed grip up near his right ear. "It's just as well you practiced your sword rather than your wit. At least you can hold your own against me in swordplay."

When the swordsman had first arrived several months ago, Motoko would've taken grave offense at that statement, but not any longer. While she had always known that Seno taunted her out of a desire to entertain those around him while simultaneously spurring her to higher levels, she had been prideful and took almost everything as a personal strike to her honor.

But as time passed, and she'd grown more comfortable with letting her emotions show, first in regards to Keitaro and then to Seno, she'd come to find she was just as entertained by his remarks, even if they weren't always the wittiest in the world. And now they were a part of everyday life at the Hinata apartments, like Shinobu's cooking, Su's inventions, and Keitaro and Naru remaining woefully ignorant of their feelings for one another.

The younger Aoyama smiled at that last thought. _That is no longer a part of everyday life,_ she thought. _Now they are well aware of each others' feelings, and are happier than they have ever been._ Closing her eyes, she took a deep, cleansing breath of the early morning air. _So much has changed here in just one night. The Hinata has always been a place of fun and laughter, but now it seems as if the walls are _alive _with joy._

"Let us see how I fare against you in a match of blades," she said. "Prepare yourself, Seno!"

Seno smiled. "Come on, then."

In silence, Motoko rushed him. As she neared him, she drew back her right arm and sent the blade singing through the air in a horizontal arc. But as she began her swing, Seno took a step forward, bringing his own weapon down to intercept hers, albeit a tad sloppily, away from his body. He twisted the blade in his hands, forcing her back and away from him, but did not press an attack.

She immediately struck again, striking straight for his chest, but the flat of his blade knocked her sword away from her target. Unperturbed, she raised her blade again and circled him silently, creating as little noise as possible to give away her movements. She drew her arm across her body, preparing to strike his undefended back, and her gi rustled just slightly as she moved her arms. She swore mentally as he began to spin to defend against her attack, having heard the noise of her gi. Keeping her movement constant, she changed the angle of her blade to strike at his knees, fully expecting him to alter his defense to parry her blow.

He didn't.

By the time she realized that he had no idea of the danger he was in, it was too late for her to withdraw the strike. She flipped the blade in her hands, turning it so that the flat edge would hit him to reduce the possibility of permanent, debilitating harm. The broad side of the Hina blade bit into his right leg just below the knee, tripping the swordsman over backwards onto the laundry deck.

Releasing the Hina blade to clatter to the ground, Motoko threw herself beneath Seno, wrapping her arms around him to cushion his impact with the ground. Her back hit the wooden deck, followed a split-second later by his full weight landing on top of her, forcing a short gasp of pain out of her.

"Are you okay?" she gasped, breathless at the thought that she had hurt him.

The swordsman reached up to pull the blindfold off, looking down to see Motoko inspecting the area of his leg that she had hit. The strike hadn't been hard enough to break any bones, and it'd been lucky that she'd hit him with the backside of the sword or there'd be an awful mess on the deck.

He sat up, leaning forward to poke at the discolored area. "It'll leave a bruise," he said. "Nothing serious." He shifted his hand to rest it around Motoko's neck, gently squeezing her shoulder. "I guess we're even now, huh? From the first time we fought, and I hurt you."

She smiled faintly, remembering the fight that had lasted two moves in only two seconds. She'd attacked him in arrogance and overconfidence, and had taken a smarting blow, both to her ego and the back of her neck, for her troubles. "I'm sorry," she said. "I thought you would anticipate the change in my attack."

He smiled as well and leaned forward further, kissing her temple. "Don't apologize," he replied. "I wanted to test the limits of my ability to fight sightless, and I did. Tomorrow, I'll try again."

"If it means that I keep having to hurt you, I don't know how much I'll be able to take."

He brought up his other arm and pulled her into a hug, pillowing her head against his chest. He then laid back on the deck, pulling her down with him. "Don't worry, Motoko. I promise I'll be more responsible. Besides, just think of it as a way to figure out just how good I am in the, ah… _stamina_ department."

The way he'd uttered the word 'stamina' caused Motoko's face to turn bright red. She tried to reply, but the only sounds that would come out were embarrassed stammerings. After a moment, she managed to gain control of herself, and pressed her forehead against his chest.

"I'm going to kill you, Nakakami," she said quietly.

The laid-back swordsman smirked. "I'd be able to live with myself in Hell, knowing I've gotten so many rises out of you."

For several moments, she was silent. But then she started laughing, and rolled off of Seno's chest to lay on the deck beside him, one arm pillowed beneath her head as the other draped across his stomach.

"I could get used to this," she said, watching the morning mists slowly evaporating under the heat of the sun.

"What, beating me up?"

Motoko smiled. "That, too." She sighed in contentment, and snuggled up closer to the swordsman. "But I mean this, what we have right now. Quiet moments just to enjoy each others' company."

Smiling, Seno slid his right arm beneath her and squeezed her right shoulder. "Never figured you to be a romantic, Motoko," he said.

"I was never allowed to be," she replied, sighing, sadly this time. She curled closer against him. "All my life, I've been focused solely on honing my swordsmanship. And when my sister married and gave up the sword, I was convinced that romance was a tool of the weak and unjust."

"'Weak and unjust'?" he repeated. "Having a Wufei moment?"

Motoko smiled. "You're the one writing that silly story that turns all of us into Gundam pilots," she replied. "I never asked to replace him."

"He was the pilot whose personality matched yours the closest. But hey, look on the bright side. At least you didn't have an emotional breakdown when you lost to Tsuruko."

The swordswoman went very still. "Actually, Seno, I _did_ have an emotional breakdown." She paused. "Oh, that's right, you weren't there when that happened. I forgot, you didn't know."

"I'm sorry," he said, sensing that he'd just poked a hot knife into a barely-healed injury.

"Don't be," she replied calmly. "You weren't aware." For a moment, there was silence between them, then she looked over and gave him a thin smile. "Anyway, back to the previous topic, I didn't think that there would be any use for love after my sister gave up the sword for marriage."

She took a slow breath, then laid her head on his shoulder. "Then Keitaro came here to take over as manager. At first, I hated him. He was the personification of everything about men and romance that I didn't want anything to do with. But then, the more I was around him, the more compassionate that I saw he was, the more selfless I saw he was, and I thought that maybe I had been wrong.

"And then you showed up, with all your laid-back charisma, all your skill. Between you and Keitaro, my barriers got broken down. I stopped being so hateful, and I allowed myself to wonder what love is like. But with Keitaro being so close to Naru, it felt like someone was twisting a knife in my guts every time I saw them. To think that I had been so close to finding love, but it was just out of reach."

Pausing, she flushed slightly and looked toward Seno, who was watching her attentively, listening to her every word. She smiled. "But then last night happened, and I discovered my love." Then she grinned, breaking the wistful mood that had settled over them. "So yes, I never was a romantic until last night. And since you brought it out of me, you have to suffer through my exploring it."

"I have absolutely no problem helping you explore your romanticism," he replied with a grin that would do Kitsune proud.

Blushing again, she smacked his chest with her right hand. "Pervert," she muttered.

--

Naru wandered into the living room to see Keitaro standing near the door, pulling his shoes on. She walked over to him and tilted her head to one side. "You going somewhere?" she asked.

He looked up and smiled when he realized who it was. "Yeah, I'm going to the hardware store. Want to come along?"

"Sure," she replied, sitting down to pull on her shoes.

Once they were both ready, Keitaro stood up and pushed open the front door, holding it for Naru to walk out ahead of him. She smiled at him and stepped outside, then turned and waited for him to join her. Once he closed the door behind him, she slipped her left arm through his right, and they started down the steps of the Hinata apartments.

"So what do you need at the hardware store?" she asked.

"Stuff that I can use to fix the hole in our rooms," he answered.

She stopped in her tracks, letting her arm fall away from his, and stared at him, the hurt plainly evident on her face. Tears began to well in her eyes. "Fix the hole? But why?"

He blinked, realized that she'd made the wrong assumption, and waved his hands placatingly in front of him. "No, no, that's not what I mean!" he hastily said. "I didn't mean I was going to _close_ the hole, I just meant I was going to repair it and make it safer!"

She sniffed and blinked away the tears. "Make it safer?"

"Yeah," he replied, nodding. "Because you know, the floor around the hole is rotted, and it could fall through any day. And since it's not a circular hole, there's always the chance that one of us could cut ourselves trying to go up or down through it. So what I was going to do was pull up the floor, replace it, then cut an even hole into it. Maybe put a raised step in your room as well, so it won't be so easy to just fall into it."

As he explained his reasoning, Naru lifted her left hand and pressed it against her heart, willing it to stop beating so fast. "Oh," she said. "I thought you were going to…"

"Of course not," he said softly, wrapping his arms around her and hugging her tightly. "That hole means too much to me to ever close up. I just don't want you to get hurt trying to get through it, that's all."

Smiling, she laid her head on his chest and luxuriated in the feeling of his proximity. "Keitaro, you jerk," she said, her voice warm, lacking any venom to put behind her words. "You only ever think of others. Don't you ever do anything for yourself?"

"Seeing you girls happy, and you especially, Naru, is all I want for myself," he replied.

"Oh my, am I interrupting something?"

The young couple looked up to see a lovely young woman standing in front of them, smiling pleasantly. She had long, dark brown hair tied back in a braid, with two disobedient strands of hair sticking up from the front of her head like antennae. She wore a green long-sleeved shirt underneath a yellow sundress.

"Mutsumi?" Naru asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, I just felt like dropping by. It's nice to see that you and Keitaro are getting along so well. Are you two together now?"

Keitaro smiled and released Naru, then took her left hand in his right and laced their fingers together. "Yeah, we are," he said.

"Oh, how wonderful!" Mutsumi said, clapping her hands together. "It's about time you two finally admitted your feelings for each other."

The young couple smiled at their optimistic friend, then something flashed through Naru's mind. "Umm, Mutsumi? Do you remember fifteen years ago? A promise you made to a little boy?"

"Why, yes, I do," Mutsumi said. While her expression didn't change, her tone of voice indicated that she was becoming serious. "But I already told you, Naru, I'm not the little girl Keitaro made his promise with."

"That's not what my memories tell me," Keitaro replied. "I distinctly remember making a promise to a girl I called Mu-chan. The only thing was, the promise wasn't to get into Tokyo University together. It was to get into Tokyo University with our friend…"

"Na-chan," Mutsumi finished, smiling. "So you finally remembered the promise, did you?"

"Yeah. I can't believe I've had it wrong all this time."

"It's okay, Keitaro," Mutsumi said. "We were only kids, so it's natural you wouldn't remember all of the promise. The important thing is that you've found your promise girl." With that, Mutsumi nodded her head in Naru's direction.

"Mutsumi, I don't understand," Naru said, squeezing Keitaro's hand. "Why did you make him promise to be with me, and not you?"

"It's true that I've always loved Keitaro and that he had feelings for me as well, but it was obvious that you absolutely adored him when we used to play together as kids." At this, Naru's face reddened considerably. "And I knew that he loved you as well. I knew that the two of you were meant for each other."

"But that still doesn't explain why you let me have him, instead of keep him yourself?"

Mutsumi smiled that warm, motherly smile of hers. "Naru, have you ever heard the saying, 'If you love something, let it go'?"

The younger girl nodded.

"I love Keitaro, but I knew he would be happier with you. That's why I made him promise to be with you."

Naru looked down and blushed again. "Thank you, Mutsumi," she said quietly. "You've given me more than I can ever repay you for."

"That's not true," Mutsumi replied. "All you have to do to repay me is make sure he keeps his promise to me." She turned her head toward the sky, a dreamy expression appearing on her face, before she focused on her friends again. "So what are you two up to today?"

"We're going to the hardware store so I can get some supplies to fix the hole connecting our rooms," Keitaro said.

"Oh, are you moving in with each other and that's why you don't need the hole anymore?" the dark-haired girl asked.

Naru's face turned as red as her skirt as Keitaro's eyes widened. "Uhh, I don't think we're to that point in our relationship yet, Mutsumi," he said. "I'm just going to fix the hole so that there's no danger of one of us getting hurt while we're using it."

"Oh, I see," Mutsumi said, nodding. "That's a good idea. You should have done that a while ago."

"I guess I just didn't think about it," Keitaro replied, scratching his head nervously.

"Don't feel bad, Keitaro," Mutsumi said with a smile as she touched her forehead with her right hand in that way of hers. "I forget things all the time."

"Want to come with us, Mutsumi?" Naru asked.

"Sure!" the older girl said, beaming. She fell in on Keitaro's left side and, after a questioning glance to Naru, looped her arm through his. "So tell me the story. I want to know how you two got together so suddenly when I've been trying to push you together since I've known you."

"Seno basically got fed up with us playing cat and mouse and threw me into Naru's room and forced me to confess under swordpoint," Keitaro replied, deadpan.

"Oh, my," Mutsumi said.

"He did no such thing," Naru said, pinching Keitaro's side. As he yelped, Naru leaned forward to look at Mutsumi. "The only thing Seno did was give Keitaro a pep talk, send him up to me, and then stood outside to make sure nobody would interrupt us."

"That sounds more accurate," the Okinawan native said. She smiled at Keitaro. "You're a bad liar, Keitaro."

The Hinata apartments kanrinin grinned ruefully. "Well, let me tell you about all that happened…"

--

_1132 hours, local time_

Hours later, the sword-wielding pair of Seno and Motoko made their way down the stairs to the common room on the first floor. Seno seemed to be favoring his right leg, a fact that had Motoko in a state of near-permanent shame. "Hey, Kitsune, you seen Naru and Keitaro?"

The fox-eyed lady looked over to them from her position on the couch, where she'd been watching a poorly-dubbed American soap opera. "Yeah, they came back a little while ago with some building supplies and the turtle lady," she said.

"Guess we didn't notice," Motoko said.

Kitsune rolled over on the couch and winked at the couple. "So what've _you_ two been doing that's got you so distracted?" she asked with a grin.

Rolling his eyes, Seno slipped an arm around Motoko's waist and led her back upstairs. "Do us all a favor, Kitsune, go get laid."

Growling like her namesake, Kitsune hurled her half-full sake glass at the retreating swordsman. He reacted instantly, his free hand drawing a kunai from a hidden sheath at his waist to strike the sake glass from the air. With no further word, he replaced the blade and continued upstairs with Motoko.

All of that having been done without looking.

As they wandered down the hallway on the second floor, Motoko looked over at Seno. "I'm going to take a bath," she said.

He nodded, all jokes and poking laid aside, and asked, "Want me to wash your back?"

Flushing red, she looked away. "I… would like that, but I don't think that our relationship has progressed that far yet," she replied.

"I understand," he said, smiling comfortingly at her. "No hurry. I'll just go bother Keitaro for a while until you're done, or maybe go sneak one myself."

"Thank you for understanding," Motoko said softly, then rose up on the balls of her feet to kiss his cheek, before turning toward the stairs to go up and into her room for a change of clothes.

Seno stopped in the middle of the hallway after she left, resting his left hand on the hilt of his sword as he looked out into the morning sky. "Another beautiful day at the Hinata," he said to no one in particular. "And this day is much brighter than those in the past have been. Hopefully, future days will only continue to get brighter."

It was at that point that something hard landed on top of his head, accompanied by a "Myuh!" sound.

The swordsman looked up to find that the resident hot springs turtle, Tama-chan, had landed on his head. He chuckled. "Sorry, Tama, you just missed Motoko. She went upstairs to her room."

With a "Myuh!" that sounded oddly like a 'thanks' the turtle jumped from his head and sailed through the air toward the stairs. Snickering, Seno turned and walked toward Keitaro's room.

Moments later, the sound of a shriek could be heard from all corners of the house, followed by a panicked cry of "Turtle!"

Seno's smirk broke into a wide grin. "Poor Motoko. One day, I'll have to help her get over that fear of turtles, even if I have to tie her up and throw her in a room full of them."

Clearly, his voice carried farther than he'd thought, because he next heard her shout from the floor above, "I will cut your fingers off if you even _try_ that, Nakakami!"

"It would be well worth it, Motoko dear!" he called back.

His only answer came in the sounds of Motoko stomping angrily down the hallway above him. At the same time, Tama-chan glided serenely down from the upper level and landed on his shoulder. Patting the turtle on the head, he walked into Keitaro's room.

The first thing he noticed was that the entire section of ceiling where the hole leading into Naru's room should have been was gone, and that Keitaro was leaning halfway out of Naru's room, a carpenter's belt wrapped around his waist and a sheet of plywood in his hands.

"Redecorating?" the swordsman asked, raising an eyebrow up at his friend.

"Just fixing the hole so that nobody gets hurt trying to use it," the kanrinin replied, not looking up from his work.

Seno couldn't resist. "Making it easier for you and Naru to sneak into each others' rooms for some nookie, eh?"

Keitaro paused. "What's nookie?"

"An American term," his friend replied with a grin. "You're too young to understand. Give it a few months."

For several moments, Keitaro was as still as a statue as he pondered the meaning of what Seno had said. Then, the rising color of his face became a clear indicator of his understanding. "Seno, you bastard!" he said.

"You should be thanking me," the swordsman replied calmly, his grin growing to infuriating levels. "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be getting any."

Just then, Naru appeared in the removed section of ceiling, glaring daggers at Seno, her face red in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. She reared back her right arm and threw a dictionary at him. And not any tiny little pocket dictionary; this was a full-sized, hardcover dictionary bigger than his head.

"That is none of your business!" she screamed as the dictionary flattened Seno in under a second. She then stalked away from the hole, working her shoulder and wincing slightly as if she'd pulled a muscle.

Upstairs, Mutsumi watched her friend closely. "Oh my, are you okay, Naru?" she asked.

"Yeah, just my shoulders hurt," the younger girl replied, sitting at the table in the center of her room.

"Well, then let me see," Mutsumi said.

"Do what?"

Smiling, the Okinawan native turned Naru around and pulled the back of her shirt up to her neck. "Let me see," she repeated.

Naru's face reddened again. "Mutsumi! What are you doing?"

The older girl giggled. "I can't see if you pulled your shoulder if you're wearing your shirt," she said. "So take it off."

That statement caused Keitaro to twitch violently, and if he hadn't been holding onto Naru's floor, he almost certainly would've been on the ground with Seno right about then. Impulsively, he pulled his head up and turned toward the pair just as Naru pulled off her shirt. Even though she was still wearing her bra, he immediately realized that just because of that, he had taken his life into his own hands. Again.

Naru saw him looking at her, but instead of reacting violently, she just flushed red from her face to her chest and quietly said, "Keitaro…"

"Ack!" Keitaro shouted, covering his eyes with his hands. "I'm sorry, Naru! I didn't mean to look!"

"It's okay…" she said softly.

Slowly, he lowered her hands and met eyes with his girlfriend from across the room. She had crossed her arms over her chest, and the expression on her face was the complete opposite of what he had expected. Instead of anger, he saw fear.

"Naru…?"

"I… I don't want to disappoint you," she whispered, then looked away from him.

That revelation stunned him into silence. His jaw muscles worked up and down, but no sound came out. She was afraid of disappointing him with her looks? If not for the fact that she seriously thought that was the case, he would have found it funny.

"Oh, my," Mutsumi said.

"Wh-what?" Naru asked, a note of fear creeping into her voice. "What is it?"

The dark-haired woman pointed to the mirror nearby. "Naru, look at your back!"

Naru turned her back toward the mirror and looked over her shoulder. Mutsumi obligingly pulled Naru's hair out of the way, and the younger girl gasped. Cutting across her shoulder blades, beneath her bra straps, were two marks on her skin that appeared to be old scars, half an inch wide and six inches long, that ran diagonally from her spine toward the sides of her body.

"What the hell are those?" Naru blurted out.

Her older friend looked around her room, as if seeking the answer for you. Her eyes fell on the table, where Keitaro's sketchbook was still laying open to the drawing of an angelic Naru. Smiling, Mutsumi traced her fingers along the marks on Naru's back and said, "Those must be where you hide your wings."


	5. Premonition: First Blood is Drawn

_"Deep down, I think I always knew something like that was going to happen. Me and relationships, we don't get along too fondly."_  
- Seno Nakakami; 'Dragon of Hinata'

**Chapter IV:  
Premonition!**

**First Blood is Drawn!**

_July 26, 2006  
Apartment Complex, Hinata, Japan  
1756 hours, local time_

A young woman knelt in a darkened room, her eyes shut and concentration creasing her expression. The faint scent of incense filled the air, accompanied by the light haze of smoke drifting near the ceiling. She winced suddenly, as if she had been stabbed.

_Darkness, hatred, despair, anger, loathing, jealousy, betrayal, shame. Her mind's eye was a study in every negative emotion a human being could experience. She saw blood, heard the cries of pain and fear, and felt the cold bite of a sword's blade cutting into her. So much pain, both physical and of the heart. And beneath it all, a cold black pit of malice. Calculated vengeance._

Slowly, she lifted her left hand and placed it over her heart, pressing down in an attempt to ease the twisting pain that had gripped her. She had always been extremely empathic, to the point where she could often pick up on strong emotions from those around her. But whenever she saw someone in her meditations, she could always feel exactly what they were feeling.

Her eyes opened, the chocolate-colored orbs vibrating in both pain and panic as she struggled to regulate her breathing. She could not afford another of her infamous fainting spells, not now. Every time she passed out, she always lost her train of thought. And even though she strongly doubted she would ever be able to forget the images she had seen, and the emotions she had felt, the time lost in between would be too much.

"Why now, of all times?" she asked no one. "For all these years, it has remained dormant, and there have been no overt signs of its presence. Why is it now beginning to stir?"

She stood up swiftly, with an agility and grace that would surprise anyone who knew her, and crossed to the far end of the room. Throwing open the curtains that she had drawn shut over her windows, she stared out into the city, her eyes fixating on the not-so-distant Hinata apartments. The sun was already low on the horizon on the other side of her apartment, casting a bloody red glow across the Hinata. _An omen._

"More importantly, what can I do to stop it?"

--

_Hinata Apartments  
2006 hours, lotal time_

"We're back!"

Kitsune lifted her head from where she was laying on the couch. "Welcome back," she said. "How was your date?"

Seno grinned. "Are you kidding? Keitaro and Naru in a darkened theater for two and a half hours? I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't watch ten seconds of the movie."

Both Tokyo University hopefuls flushed crimson. Naru, though, was quick on the uptake. "Oh yeah? What about you and Motoko?" She leered at the other couple. "Do we need to go buy childproofing kits for the house?"

The swordsman felt Motoko stiffen under his arm. He gave her a reassuring squeeze, then waved off Naru's comment with his free hand. "Really, Naru. Stop projecting your own fantasies onto us. We all know it's only a matter of time until we've got little bookworms running around here."

By then, Kitsune had levered herself up to lean against the back of the couch, watching the conversation with strong interest as she cupped her chin in both hands. _It's times like these when I really love my ability to spark these little spats._

Before the conversation could degenerate any further, Shinobu came down from upstairs and spotted the two couples. "Oh, welcome back," she said. "How was the movie?"

"It was a very good movie," Keitaro quickly spoke up, thankful for the opportunity to change subjects.

"Yeah," Seno agreed. "Completely blew away the first one." He tossed a grin over at Motoko. "And somebody developed an instant fangirl crush on a certain savvy pirate."

The swordswoman blushed and elbowed him in the side. "His sword skills were admirable," she muttered, attempting to talk her way out of it.

"His sword skills consisted of letting Will and Norrington fight each other, and trying to steal the key while they weren't paying attention."

"Wait, wait," Kitsune interrupted. "Norrington as in _Commodore_ Norrington? From the first movie? He came back?"

"Yeah," Naru replied. "And get this? He's a pirate now! Or at least, he was. Until he sold out Jack and the others."

"Okay really," Seno said, "who _didn't_ see that coming?" He paused, then nodded to himself. "Other than Keitaro, who didn't see that coming?"

"Hey!"

"I didn't," Naru replied with a scowl.

"I had an inkling," Motoko said. "It made sense. You know that your pirate captain has a chance to receive a letter of marquee from the owner of the East India Trading Company. You discover that your captain is searching for the heart of Davey Jones–"

"Though in all honesty, I have no idea what Jack was thinking in that he'd be able to barter his survival from Davey just because he had the squid-man's heart," Seno interrupted. "The ending _clearly_ showed that Davey had very little in the way of remorse over feeding his own heart to the kraken in order to get rid of Jack as well."

"Then what was with that outburst when he saw that his heart wasn't in the chest?" Motoko asked, abandoning her earlier train of thought.

"He was only so pissed off because he didn't have it on hand to hide again," Seno replied. "There was also the consideration that there's an off-chance that the kraken would digest the heart, thus killing Davey. But of course, in that regard, it was neither proven nor disproven that destroying Davey's heart would kill him. It's a safe assumption, true, but recall that we're dealing with the supernatural. Nothing is as simple as it seems."

The other three moviegoers nodded agreeably.

And as the quartet continued to discuss the plotline and characters of the movie, Kitsune and Shinobu exchanged dumbfounded glances and shrugs of confused acceptance. They had no idea what any of them were talking about, since they were discussing it in a fairly roundabout manner without much in the way of direct explanations of the scenes.

Kitsune turned back to try to lead them back to the earlier, more amusing, topic, when something hanging around Motoko's neck glinted golden at her as the swordswoman shifted her position, causing the object to reflect the light of the setting sun. "Ack! What's that you're wearing, Motoko? I thought you didn't like jewelry?"

"Oh, this?" the swordswoman asked, reaching up to wrap her hand around the object. Her cheeks flushed just slightly.

"It's Aztec gold," Seno explained, matter-of-factly.

"Oh," Kitsune said. A full second ticked by. "WHAT? Aztec gold as in, _the_ Aztec gold?"

The swordsman's grin widened. "Yes, indeed it is," he said. "But since it was I that picked it up and gave it to her, I'm the one with the curse, not her."

"C-c-curse?" Shinobu stammered, fear written all over her features.

For Seno, the opportunity for a practical joke was like blood in the water. "Ah, then you've never heard of the cursed treasure of Cortez?" he asked slyly, grinning.

"No…" the young girl replied, holding tightly to the banister.

"Well, back in the early days of Spanish exploration of the Americas, there was a conquistador named Cortez who ran into the native tribes of the Aztec Indians," Seno explained. "Now Cortez, he wasn't a nice guy. Instead of trying to broker a deal or something like that with the Aztecs, he decided it'd be easier to kill them all and claim the land for Spain."

To the surprise of both himself and Kitsune, none of the others had spoken up to stop him yet. He was clearly out to scare Shinobu, judging by the predatory look on his face and the venomous tone in his voice. Perhaps they wanted to see how far he'd take it.

"The exact amount of time he spent killing them has been lost to history, but there's one thing we do know for certain. At some point, the Aztecs decided upon trying to buy off Cortez. So they gave him a stone chest filled with eight hundred and eighty-two pieces of their gold. Blood money to stem the slaughter he reaped on them with his armies."

Naru raised her hand to her forehead and Motoko shook her head slowly as Seno, predictably, began slipping into quotes from the movie.

"But the greed of Cortez was insatiable," Seno said, slowly stalking up the stairs toward Shinobu, who was frozen to the spot, riveted by the tale. "So the heathen gods placed upon the chest, a _terrible_ curse. Any mortal who dares take but a single piece of gold from the chest, would be cursed for all eternity."

Unnoticed by Shinobu, Su had snuck into the area and had slipped the swordsman a skull mask while he'd been telling the story. With a grin and a thumbs-up to the hyperactive girl, he slipped the mask on, keeping his back to Shinobu.

"But…but that's just a story, right?" Shinobu asked, her voice shaking with fear. "There's no curse to be afraid of is there?"

Seno chuckled and turned toward Shinobu, whose back was still toward him, and knelt down until he was at eye level with her. "Aye, of course you'd think there's nothing to be afraid of," he said. "But I've got just one thing to say to you."

"W-w-what?"

"Have no fear of cursed treasure, says ye?" Suddenly, he grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her to face him, forcing her to stare directly at his skull mask. "Properly warned ye be, says I!"

Seno's words and the skull mask he was wearing on his head registered at the exact same time in Shinobu's mind. The poor girl let out a terrified scream and began to backpedal rapidly away from what she saw as the vision of horror. Unfortunately, she soon ran out of room to run as the landing gave way to the stairs leading down to the bottom floor. Her retreating foot suddenly hit air, and then she was sailing down, toward a hard impact with the ground.

Motoko was instantly in motion, reaching out and catching Shinobu before she could hit the ground and hurt herself. After ensuring Shinobu's safety, she glared up at Seno. It was a glare familiar to all the Hinata residents, one that was usually followed by a shout of one of her blade skills, and then by Keitaro making a human-shaped hole somewhere in the building.

"That was unnecessary and cruel," she hissed. "_Take_ that mask off."

The swordsman was already in the process of reaching up and pulling the mask off his head, which he then tossed down into the commons area. "Yeah, I really overdid that," he said, then leaned forward and planted both hands on his knees. "Hey Shinobu? I'm sorry that I scared you like that. There's not really a curse. Hell, there's not even really any treasure. They made it all up for the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie."

Shinobu blinked at the pair, trying to fight back the tears. She caught sight of the gold medallion hanging around Motoko's neck. "If none of it is real, then what's that?" she asked, pointing to it.

Smiling, Motoko reached up and squeezed the medallion between both hands, then pulled her hands apart. She lowered her right hand, revealing that the medallion had split open along a very well-hidden seam. "It's a locket," she said. "It's patterned after the gold coins from the movie, which were much larger than this."

Sitting up, Shinobu reached up and gently held the medallion in both hands as she closed it and inspected it. "It's pretty," she said. "Well, except for the skull." She looked up at Seno. "Where did you get this for Motoko?"

"There were some guys at the theater dressed up in costumes," he replied, "giving those out. I was lucky enough to get their last one, and gave it to Motoko."

"That's so sweet!" Shinobu said, smiling widely. "Are you going to put a picture of Seno and yourself in it?"

Motoko smiled in return and patted the younger girl on the head. "As soon as we get one, yes," she answered. Her smile vanished as she turned a glare on her boyfriend. "If I forgive him, of course."

"Don't stay mad at him, Motoko," Shinobu pouted. "It's my fault for not seeing the movie in the first place." She turned to Seno. "You've got it on DVD, don't you?"

He nodded.

"Then I'll forgive you for scaring me if you let me watch it!" she said with a smile.

Seno smirked and gave her a thumbs-up. "Deal."

--

_July 27, 2006  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0004 hours, local time_

The night that fell upon the Hinata apartments was a dark, moonless night. A heavy fog set in over the hot springs town, obscuring the stars from view as well, and reducing one's ability to see to a handful of feet ahead of them. All in all, it was a perfect night for ghost stories and all manner of things usually reserved for horror movies.

In the Hinata apartments, the tenants all slept as soundly as if they had been afflicted with a sleeping spell. It was silent as the grave within the building, with not one living being active within the apartments.

An atmosphere of ill will and hatred clouded the third floor, stemming from the room nearest the stairwell, occupied by the resident swordsman and gamer. The swordsman himself was completely oblivious to it; his state of unconsciousness was just a step above clinically dead.

There was a flash, and then a black mist began to emanate from the sleeping swordsman's body. Anyone with the slightest sensing ability would know immediately that the mist was a spirit, and anyone who knew Seno would likewise know that the hatred and hostility emanating from the spirit was not that of the good-natured swordsman.

After a few moments, the mist cleared his body entirely, and then began to coalesce. It almost immediately took on the shape of a man with young, boyish features, nearly a head shorter than Seno himself, clad in clothing typical of the Meiji revolution era.

Then a sinister smile carved across the man's face as his form blurred and darkened. The mist-shrouded body grew no taller, but when visible features once more solidified from the maelstrom of dark gasses, the spirit looked identical to the sleeping swordsman, down to the dark blue military-style physical fitness shorts and white muscle shirt he wore.

A sinister, disembodied chuckle echoed throughout the room as the doppelganger knelt down beside the sleeping swordsman and brushed his hand over his face. Or more accurately, brushed his semi-corporeal hand _through_ Seno's face. The swordsman's reaction was immediate; he flinched violently at the contact, his face contorting almost into a painful scowl. But he did not awaken.

"_You got careless, Nakakami,"_ the spirit's voice intoned, though its mouth didn't move. "_You were never consciously aware of it, but deep down, you've always managed to avoid attaching yourself to the things I could use to destroy you. But you've made a serious mistake, getting involved with that girl now, especially since it's time for me to awaken. Now, you'll pay for your mistake. Pay with your life, and I shall be released from this prison."_

With another evil laugh, the spirit doppelganger rose and turned away from Seno. The door out to the hallway was left open; for reasons that apparently Seno himself didn't know, he never closed his door at night. This often proved to be somewhat hazardous to his health during the winter time, considering his permanent choice of sleeping attire was decidedly not made for containing body heat; though, to make up for that deficiency, he usually slept beside a portable heater during the winter.

Its feet never actually coming in contact with the wooden floor, the spirit exited Seno's room onto the hallway curving along the outside of the Hinata. It turned to the right, toward Motoko's room.

In the room it had departed, Seno groaned and shifted restlessly in his compelled slumber. "No… bastard… leave her out of it…"

--

Three rooms down from Seno, Motoko slept soundly in her futon, one arm tucked beneath her pillow, the other securely holding the medallion that he had given her. The incense candles she'd lit on her dresser before going to bed had long since gone out, casting her room into pitch blackness.

Her left eye slipped open slightly, her mind caught in that transient state between sleep and full wakefulness. She could sense that she was not alone in her room, but she could neither move nor determine who was in her room. Part of her mind told her that it was just another nightmare, but another part told her that she should be trying much harder to awaken.

The unexpected visitor walked to the side of her futon and knelt down beside her. She recognized the sleepwear of Seno, and then his face lowered into her vision. He reached out a hand and brushed it against her cheek. If she had been capable, she would have shivered violently. His hand was as cold as a block of ice.

"…Se…Seno?" she uttered, finding her voice, though it was meek and quiet.

"Shh," his voice answered. "This won't hurt for long."

Her intent had been to ask him what he had meant, but as she felt the covers being dragged off of her, the words died in her throat. _No,_ she thought. _This _has _to be a nightmare. This can't be happening. Wake up, wake up, wake up!_

Despite her best efforts, she remained trapped in the horror of what she feared was about to happen to her. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and then forced them open. Under normal circumstances, she was always able to awaken herself from any point in any dream or nightmare by doing that.

But the absolute darkness of her room didn't go away. She both heard and felt shifting fabric, followed by the demoralizing feeling of one's limbs being moved and positioned with the owner being physically unable to do anything about it. The cold, spiky rush of panic and adrenaline surged through her, but her body still refused to obey the commands of her mind.

She felt another sense of cold then, the feeling of her attacker's cold hands grasping her bare legs and repositioning them. Gasping at the contact, she once again commanded her hands to push him away, but her fingers didn't even twitch.

_I… I can't believe this is about to happen…_ Her vision swam out of focus as her eyes filled with tears, soon overflowing and streaking down the side of her face. _Why? Why is he doing this to me? I thought he loved me…_

Pain suddenly coursed through her body without warning, like that of a blade piercing her flesh magnified a thousandfold. She managed to choke out a short scream of pain before tightly squeezing her eyes shut and biting her lip to draw her focus away from the pain in the lower regions of her body.

Though the initial pain, akin to a gunshot wound, had begun to dull, the pain of forced entry and a harsh rhythm was just beginning. Her hands knotted in the sheets of her futon, tightening until her knuckles had blanched white from the exertion. More tears, caused by physical as well as emotional pain, streamed down her face, staining the pillow and mattress below her.

"Relax," his voice whispered into her ear, causing a shiver to run up her spine despite the pain. She easily caught the malevolent note in his voice.

_This can't be my Seno… He wouldn't do this to me…_

"Don't worry, you'll be enjoying this before I'm done."

He could not have been any more wrong if he had tried to be.

--

_0615 hours, local time_

Morning came silently and, some could have argued, reluctantly to the Hinata apartments. The morning birds that usually greeted the day with their sweet songs were apparently taking the day off, and the sun itself seemed to be subdued as it poured its light onto the building.

This happening was not lost on the tenants of the building. The breakfast table was equally silent that morning, and missing one of the resident swordmasters. There was no banter or idle chatter that morning around the table, the only sounds being utensils coming into contact with food bowls. Even the normally-hyperactive Su was restrained, daresay even drained, as she slowly picked at her food.

With his chopsticks halfway to his mouth, Seno once again cast a depressingly-bleak look toward the main stairway. But there was still no sign of Motoko. He sighed again, and turned his attention back to his meal.

Across the table, Naru discreetly watched her friend, her own mood bordering on depression. _Where could Motoko be?_ she wondered to herself. _She's never missed breakfast before. And Seno looks so sad…_

--

Upstairs, Motoko winced as the bright morning sun rose from behind a tree, hitting her in the face. She opened her eyes slowly, groaning, and rolled onto her right side. Every part of her hurt, from her head to her feet. Deciding that a good soak in the hot springs would help soothe away the pain, she threw the covers of her futon aside. When her eyes registered what they saw, she gasped aloud.

Her pajama pants were missing entirely, and blood was splattered on her futon, her legs, and the lower part of her upper body. Blood wasn't the only thing her lower half was covered in, however. She leaned forward, staring at the mixing red-and-white fluid, and suddenly it snapped together in her mind.

"No…" she whispered. "It…it really happened… Seno, he…"

Just as it had the previous night, her vision washed out of focus as she began to cry where she sat, burying her face in the palms of her hands. A million thoughts ran through her mind, most of them involving key words such as "betrayal" and "heartbreak."

Lifting her head toward the ceiling, she let out a wail that could be heard halfway across the city.

--

In the dining area, the other tenants of the Hinata looked in confusion toward the source of the cry, but Seno was the first to react. Jumping up from his seat, he grabbed his sword from where it leaned against the nearby wall and leapt over the table in a single bound, racing up the stairs toward Motoko's room as fast as his legs would carry him.

Barely a moment later, Kitsune was the second away from the table, and thus started the exodus of the entire group upstairs. As they rushed up the stairs, Seno's footsteps could be heard pounding up the stairs, taking them two and three at a time.

In less than a quarter of the time it normally took him to get from the dining room to the third floor, Seno was throwing open the door to Motoko's room, barely winded from having run the entire distance. "Motoko! What's the…"

He trailed off as he saw her sitting on her futon, partially covered in blood and an unidentifiable substance, missing her pants. "What the hell happened here? Are you okay?"

Motoko lifted her face to meet his eyes, her own shimmering with tears. Then, as fast as one changed channels on a television, her expression changed to pure rage. "YOU!" she screamed, her right hand shooting to the side and grasping the Hina blade. In a single smooth motion, she drew the blade from its sheath and shot to her feet, racing across her room at the swordsman.

Seno instinctively raised the Shinaijou, still held in its sheath, and blocked the blow. The residual strength he felt coursing through his arms told him that she had been fully intent on splitting his skull open with that strike. "Motoko!" he shouted. "It's me! What are you doing?"

She snarled as she lashed out with a vicious left uppercut, catching him in the jaw and sending him sliding back along the floor several feet away from her. "How dare you?" she hissed. "I trusted you, loved you, and this is how you repay me?"

Shaking off the dizziness caused by the strike, Seno held his sword loosely in his right hand, the sheath still covering it. "What are you talking about, Motoko?" he asked slowly. "Please, calm down and let's talk about this."

"There's nothing to discuss!" she snapped back, drawing her sword across her body in a stance he recognized well. "Zanganken!"

She struck out with her sword as she shouted, sending a wave of ki rising off the blade and hurtling toward the other swordsman. He quickly rolled to the side, smacking into the railing of the stairwell and going down to a knee.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the others making the final turn on the landing up to the third floor. Taking his attention away from his enraged girlfriend, he held out his left hand toward them. "Stop!" he ordered. "Stay down there, something's wrong with–"

He found his words cut off as Motoko's outstretched left hand seized his face, slamming him down and backwards into the floor. As the other Hinata residents watched in horror, Motoko raised her blade high above her head, clasping it with both hands as she swung it down with all her strength to deal a deathblow to the stunned Seno.

The clash of metal against hard wood and leather indicated the failure of that strike, as the residents saw he had raised his sheathed sword to block her strike. With his left hand on the hilt of the sword, he pushed the sheath up toward Motoko as he drew the sword, then swung it laterally to force her to retreat.

She quickly leapt away from him so as not to be gutted by the singing steel blade of the Shinaijou. Taking advantage of her distance, Seno rolled backwards and up to his feet, switching his sword to his right hand and holding it behind him, staring across the intervening distance at Motoko.

Naru was the first to notice the state that his sword was in. There was no glow of love coming from the weapon, and a series of minute cracks were scattered across the blade. As the swordsman stood with the blade held out of his sight, Naru watched a steady flow of moisture drip from the point of the blade nearest the ground.

She pointed this out to Keitaro, who then looked from the sword, to Motoko, to Seno. "It's crying," he whispered. "Shinaijou is crying. Motoko must be heartbroken. But why?"

Cringing past the migraine growing in the back of his head, Seno looked into Motoko's eyes and nowhere else. "Motoko, please tell me what's wrong. I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened."

An angry scowl marred her face, but Kitsune, Naru, and Keitaro all noticed immediately that she appeared to be on the verge of tears. "As if you didn't know," she whispered menacingly, then raised her blade above her head. "Raimeiken!"

The residents all instinctively ducked; they remembered her Raimeiken attack from the battle against Tsuruko in Kyoto. It was a bright, flashy, distracting attack, but not exceptionally powerful. It was usually followed by a more powerful attack.

Seno, however, had not previously witnessed this technique, and thus had no knowledge of what it entailed, or how to defend against it. In the blink of an eye, Motoko was sailing through the air toward him, her sword held behind her, energy coursing over the blade.

He swung Shinaijou to intercept the blow, and was unpleasantly surprised when the two blades connected. The charge of lightning energy contained within her blade instantaneously traveled to his, ran down the length of the sword, and coursed through his body. An explosive heat shockwave from the transference of energy blasted him backwards through the air. He hit the railing at the far end of the open corridor, flipped over it, and crashed onto the laundry deck.

Motoko was in hot pursuit, leaping up onto the railing and balancing with the grace that a professional acrobat would envy, and then propelling herself up to the deck with a strong push from her legs.

As the others rushed to following the fighting couple, they heard Motoko cry "Hyakkaryouran!" accompanied by a strong gust of wind. Almost immediately afterwards, Seno's voice called out "Tatsumaki!" and an even stronger burst of wind was the response.

When they finally reached the laundry deck, a vortex of swirling wind surrounded it, a dirt-colored wall of spiraling air interspersed with hundreds of red sakura petals. Most of the tenants recognized that the flower petals were a result of Motoko's Hyakkaryouran technique, but only Keitaro realized that Seno's answering Tatsumaki had caused the tornado to form in a defense against Motoko's attack.

The two swordfighters stood on opposite ends of the deck, their hair and clothing whipping wildly around them. It was obvious that the pair seemed ready to return to blows at any moment, and the tenants wisely remained on the stairs leading up to the deck.

"Why, Motoko?" Seno asked, a hard edge in his voice as sharp as the blade of a sword. "Why are you so intent on killing me? What did I do?"

Her expression finally changed from abject hatred, softening into a mixture of pain and anger that squeezed Seno's heart even harder. Tears collected in the corners of her eyes, threatening to break free at any moment. "I loved you, Seno," she said. "I gave you my heart, and if you had only waited, I would have given you all of me, willingly."

The swordsman's mouth dropped open. "You mean…"

She began to tremble as she closed her eyes, the knuckles of her right hand turning white as she gripped her sword tightly. "You couldn't wait, you bastard. You had to have me now. You raped me."

As it fell from his numbed fingers, Shinaijou never got the opportunity to clatter to the deck in proper dramatic form. It shattered midway down, the shards of the blade getting caught up in the swirling winds. The swordsman fell to his knees, his face filled with shame and self-loathing.

On the stairs, the residents of the Hinata couldn't have been more shocked if a bomb had exploded in the building. Not one of them thought for an instant that the kind-hearted Seno was capable of such a repugnant action, that it had to have been a nightmare on Motoko's part. But the swordswoman could surely tell the difference between a nightmare and reality, couldn't she?

Closing his eyes, Seno let his head droop forward, hanging limply above his chest. "Although I have no memory of this, I am responsible for it," he said. "Motoko, please kill me. I do not deserve even that much mercy."

As Motoko raised her sword above her head to comply, the tears suddenly broke and streamed down her face. Her sword arm wavered slightly, and she tightly shut her eyes. When she opened them again moments later, she couldn't even clearly make out Seno's kneeling form before her, so thick were the tears flowing.

Despite everything, she knew she still loved him and could not kill him for what they both believed he had done. Slowly, she lowered her sword back down to her side. "I… I can't…" she whispered. "No. I won't kill you, Seno. I…"

The swordsman rose to his feet as she spoke, slowly walking toward her, smiling wistfully as tears rolled down the sides of his face as well. He laid his left hand over her right, and for a moment, she allowed herself to believe that they could make everything right again.

Then she felt a hard tug on her arm, the stiff resistance flesh gives to a blade, watched a pained grimace appear on Seno's face, and heard Shinobu let out a short, bitten-off gasp.

Her eyes widening, Motoko looked down to see her blade disappearing inside Seno's stomach, his blood already staining the white shirt a deep red. Grunting in pain, Seno tightened his grip on her hand and pushed himself toward her until she heard the sound of the tip of her blade piercing the other side of his body.

"SENO!" the tenants all shouted as one.

Immediately, Motoko pulled back on her sword with all her might, but the strength of Seno's grip made the task impossible. Tears rising anew to her eyes, she looked up at him and tugged softly on the blade, whispering, "Please…"

At that, he let go of her hand, letting her pull the blade out of his body. With the supportive weight of the sword disappearing, he began to slump toward the ground. Throwing the bloody blade aside, Motoko caught him in both arms and gently lowered him to the ground, turning him to rest his head across her lap.

She tried to speak, to ask him why he had done that, but her voice failed her as her tears dripped down to his face.

Raising his trembling right hand, the mortally-wounded swordsman gently brushed away tears forming at the corner of her left eye. "Don't… cry, Motoko…" he breathed.

She grabbed his hand with her own and held onto it for all she was worth, squeezing tightly. "No…" she whispered. "Don't do this to me, Seno. Don't leave me alone…"

"I won't… leave…" He smiled softly up at her. "I'll… watch over you…" He coughed, causing a thin trail of blood to leak out of his mouth. "I hope that you can… think of me one day… without… hating me…"

"I don't hate you!" she insisted. "I love you!"

"I'll… always… love you, too… Moto…"

Before he could even finish his sentence, his hand fell away from hers, dropping limply onto the deck as the light of life vanished from his eyes. Unable to tear her eyes away from him, Motoko simply stared at his half-smiling face, tears streaming unnoticed from her eyes.

It was nearly a full minute before she comprehended the laughter. Slowly, reluctantly, she lifted her head to stare up at the semi-transparent, dark-colored figure floating in the air above her. The figure was a male clad in Meiji-era clothing that looked as if he could be mistaken for a young boy. A sinister smile was curved on his lips.

"_That plan couldn't have gone more perfectly if it'd been scripted,"_ the figure said, staring contemptfully down at Motoko. "_Ignorant girl. Fooling you into believing that your beloved Nakakami had raped you was much easier than I'd anticipated. But thanks to your predictable reaction, Nakakami is dead, and I'm finally free of being chained to that pathetic fool's soul."_

The figure laughed aloud, raising its arms toward the sky dramatically. "_As thanks for setting me free by killing your so-called boyfriend, I promise that when I get around to killing all of you, you'll die first and relatively fast."_

With that last, sinister remark laid down, the spirit faded away into nothingness, leaving the stunned, shell-shocked residents of the Hinata behind to try and come to terms with what had just happened.

For her part, Motoko stared down at Seno with growing horror. _It… it wasn't Seno? I was only tricked into thinking it was? No… I can't… Seno… I… I'm sorry…_

Overwhelmed by her grief, Motoko threw back her head and screamed her agony into the early morning air, screaming again and again until her throat was raw and couldn't produce any more sound.

_Why… Seno…_


	6. Kyousei Fukuin

_"So much happening so fast at once. Even staying in the background, it was overwhelming."  
_- Shinobu Maehara; 'On a Wing and a Storm'

**Chapter V:  
Kyousei Fukuin**

_July 27, 2006  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0713 hours, local time_

Thunder rumbled across the hot springs city as a mass of black storm clouds swiftly filled the sky, moving as if under compulsion. The sky darkened as the clouds spread across its width and breadth, matching the dark mood at the Hinata. As another lightning bolt slashed across the sky, rain began to fall from the clouds, a steady stream of water that began to wash away the blood pooling on the laundry deck.

Motoko ignored the rain, paying no heed as her night shirt and hair were soaked through almost immediately. She stared down at Seno's body before her, and the only word that could have properly described her emotional state was numb. Tears flowed freely from her eyes, mixing with the rainwater washing over her face. Her hair hung around her face like a black curtain, and she shivered where she sat. One would be hard-pressed to tell if it were from the cold or her breaking heart.

She felt a hand gently grasp her right shoulder and looked up to see Naru standing over her, shielding the raven-haired swordswoman from the rain as much as she could with her own body. Keitaro stood at his girlfriend's side, and the others had retreated down into the relatively-dry building. "Come on, Motoko," Naru said softly. "We need to get you inside before you catch a cold."

"I don't care!" she sobbed, shaking her head violently. "If I freeze to death out here, it just means I get to be with him again."

"Don't say that," Keitaro said, kneeling down in front of her and tilting her chin up with his fingers. "Seno wouldn't want you to give up your life. He would want you to live on."

"That's easy for you to say," she whispered, not meeting his eyes. "You're not the reason he's…" She grimaced and tightly shut her eyes, swallowing hard. She refused to say the word, clinging to some futile hope that if she didn't admit it, it wasn't true.

In their shared grief, none of them noticed the presence of the new arrival stepping up onto the laundry deck, shielding herself from the rain with an umbrella. She had anticipated that she would arrive to such a scene, but the sight of Seno lying prone on the deck, and Motoko sitting in a pool of his blood, nearly pushed Mutsumi to tears. "I'm… too late…" she whispered.

Keitaro heard her. He looked up, blinking in surprise at the sight of their friend standing there. It seemed she had a knack for showing up out of the blue in times like these. "Mutsumi?"

Naru looked up at his query, but Motoko didn't. She lowered her head again, staring blankly at the deck on the other side of Seno's body. Her hands trembled as she clenched them tightly into fists.

Not responding to Keitaro, or to Naru's questioning expression, Mutsumi swiftly crossed the deck and knelt down on the other side of Seno's body, not moving until Motoko slowly looked up and met her eyes. "Motoko," she said calmly, "do you still love him?"

The swordswoman winced at that simple question. "Of course I love him," she replied. "I wouldn't be willing to die to be with him again otherwise."

At this, Naru discreetly sought Motoko's sword and hid it behind her.

"And so you would love to have him back, wouldn't you?"

Motoko took a deep, stuttering breath, feeling fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. "Mutsumi, please do not patronize me. It is difficult enough for me to even _begin_ accepting that he is gone."

The Okinawan native smiled warmly. "I don't mean to patronize you, Motoko," she replied. "I simply wished to know how much you want him back."

A rueful smile twisted Motoko's lips for a moment. "I would give everything I have, and everything I am, to have him back," she said. "I never before realized how much I need him."

"Let me help you."

Motoko's face snapped up and she locked eyes with the older woman. "What?"

"We still have time," she said mysteriously. "I'll do everything I can to bring him back to you."

From anyone else, that statement would have been trite and utterly meaningless. But the calm confidence with which Mutsumi made it, coupled with the love and warmth flowing from the woman, touched something deep inside Motoko, causing her hopes to soar.

At that point, the physical and emotional stress of all that had occurred in the last several hours caught up to the swordswoman, overwhelming her stamina and dragging her into the black depths of unconsciousness.

Distantly, she felt Naru catch her as she fell, and heard Mutsumi say, "Naru, I'll help you get her inside. Keitaro, please bring Seno."

­--

Motoko opened her eyes to find herself in a void. All around her was nothing but whiteness, as far as the eye could see. She could feel the solid surface that she was laying upon, but as she looked around, she noticed that there was no form of differential between the ground and the sky. For all she knew, she could have been in a room with immeasurable dimensions, or in the even-more-immeasurable depths of her own subconscious.

She stood up slowly, turning in a full circle in a futile attempt to get her bearings. She dared not even move; who knew if the ground was uneven, or if the complete lack of anything differentiating 'floor' from 'walls' would disorient her.

Suddenly, she felt a very familiar presence as a pair of strong arms enfolded her from behind. Her eyes widened in surprise and she let out a shocked gasp. "Seno?"

"It's me," his warm, comforting voice cooed into her ear. A strong shiver coursed down her spine.

Almost immediately, she realized that this could only be a dream. But even still, she could _feel_ the warmth of his body surrounding her, feel the comforting embrace of his arms, feel his body pressed against her back. For a dream, it felt very real, and that only made it hurt worse. She lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut, sobbing quietly.

"Why…?" she asked no one in particular. "Why must I feel this dream so vividly? Is it not enough that I won't be able to feel you hold me ever again? Why must I be punished so?"

Seno was silent for several moments as he began to sway back and forth in place, gently rocking her in his arms. He lowered his head and placed a soft kiss on her right shoulder. "The way I see it," he said, "this is like that part in _Final Fantasy X-2_ when Yuna fell into the Farplane and Tidus led her out." He paused. "Well, wait a second, no. He didn't get to say anything to her then; all he did was use his ghostly-ness to make a path for her out of the Farplane…"

Despite everything, Motoko smiled. "You're rambling again," she said, then took in a deep breath. "I guess it proves that I really am seeing you, though. Did you give me this dream?"

"Mhmm," he answered, nodding slowly. "I wanted to see you. I'm sorry if this is only hurting you more."

A solitary tear broke from her left eye, sliding down her face. "Damn it, did Keitaro learn his selflessness from you?" she asked rhetorically. "I _killed you_, for God's sake, and still you worry about hurting me."

"I love you," he replied simply. "Your happiness is all that will ever matter to me."

Shame flooded her body, and she instinctively leaned back into him for comfort. She felt his arms tighten around her. "I cannot begin to express how sorry I am, and how ashamed I am," she said. "I should have listened to you, Seno. You did nothing to me. I didn't realize this until after that, that _thing_ came out of you and told us what it did."

"I forgive you," he said. "Please don't hold yourself accountable for my death."

The next question burned at the tip of her tongue. It was something she was desperate to know the truth behind, and yet, was also terrified of learning the reasoning of. "Why… Why did you kill yourself?"

He squeezed her once, gently, before answering, "Because as long as I was alive, that thing was bound to my spirit. If I lived, it would have only become more and more powerful, and it would have been an even greater threat to you and the others. I had to die to unchain it from me."

"But… I could have destroyed it with the _Zanmaken Ni-no-Tachi_…" she began.

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "Even though I didn't even know it existed until last night, I know that it was too strong for you to destroy it with that technique."

"And so you sacrificed yourself to protect us," she whispered, understanding. "God, even now I don't even know how blessed I am to have been able to love you."

The swordsman smiled wistfully. "Don't put me on a pedestal, Motoko," he chided softly. "I'm far from perfect."

She nodded. "Even though it hurts now, I don't want to forget you," she said. "Will you continue to visit me in my dreams?"

"For you, Motoko, I would rearrange the heavens," he replied, and she knew that he meant every word. "But there was something else I wanted to tell you. Something about Mutsumi."

Motoko pursed her lips. "Yes. I remember she said she would try to bring you back."

"I don't want to get your hopes up…"

Her eyes widening, Motoko tore herself away from Seno and spun to face him. "You mean she really can?" she exclaimed, her heart racing.

"I'm not sure," he replied, dead serious. "She's not your everyday girl. She has a special aura about her. The best way I can think of to explain it is that she's sort of like Aeris, from _Final Fantasy VII_. You know, the ultimate healer and whatnot."

Reaching out, Motoko took his hands in both of hers and squeezed tightly. "But if there's even the slightest chance that she can bring us back together in the real world, I would do _anything_ to make it happen."

Smiling, Seno leaned forward and softly pressed his lips to hers. "Believe, my beautiful Motoko."

--

_1022 hours, local time_

She heard thunder rumble outside. The room she came to in was darkened, all its doors and windows closed, and was lit only by the faint glow of unscented incense candles. As she laid quietly wherever she had been set, she heard rain pelting the building, and took a small measure of comfort in the soothing sound.

The first thing she took notice of was the fact that she was laying in a futon, with the blanket wrapped securely around her. A cold compress was on her forehead, and aside from the moisture it created, she seemed to be well dried off. That was a good thing, she decided. If Seno and Mutsumi were both correct in their belief that he could be brought back, she didn't want to be sick when it happened.

Looking to her right, she saw Keitaro sitting on the floor near her futon, leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed, obviously asleep. Naru laid on the floor beside him, her head resting in his lap, and was likewise asleep. By the looks of things, the two of them had been watching over her. She would have to remind herself to thank them later.

Turning to her left, she saw Seno's body laid flat on the ground a few feet away from her. On the far side of him was Mutsumi, kneeling down at his side, her hands clasped together in a praying position before her face, and her eyes closed. A faint, barely-visible white aura surrounded her, drifting through the air as she seemed to be trying to direct it toward the fallen swordsman.

In absolute silence, Motoko watched the watermelon-loving anemic as she prayed and guided the aura toward Seno. Looking at her positioning, coupled with her outfit and the length and style of her hair, Seno's description of her as a real-life Aeris rang through her mind. It certainly appeared to be a striking coincidence.

_It's a good thing we don't know anybody with long, silver hair and an eight foot long sword,_ she thought dryly.

Knowing that she could do almost nothing to help Mutsumi, she laid back on the futon and stared up at the ceiling, blinking slowly. As her eyes drifted around the room, she caught sight of one of the posters hanging on the wall. It featured a formation of starfighters from the Old Republic in orbit around Coruscant, and brief data boxes pertaining to the pilots. It was a poster from the latest Star Wars movie, _Revenge of the Sith_. Clearly, they were in Seno's room.

For no apparent reason, she snuggled herself tighter in the futon, wrapping her hands up in the covers and pulling them tight underneath her chin. Her movements apparently caught Keitaro's attention, as the third-year ronin opened his eyes and blinked them into focus, then looked down at Motoko.

"Oh, you're awake," he whispered, trying not to disturb Mutsumi's actions. "Are you feeling any better?"

Motoko smiled then, a genuine smile. "Yes," she replied. "Thank you for watching over me."

Keitaro smiled as well. "Don't worry about it. Anything for a friend in need."

Nodding silently, she returned to watching Mutsumi's attempt at…whatever it was she was attempting to do in order to bring back Seno. She had no righteous idea what the older woman was doing, but she could clearly sense a large amount of energy emanating from Mutsumi. It was similar to a ki aura, but substantially different in that it couldn't possibly be confused for ki.

Outside, she heard a final rumble of thunder, and then the omnipresent patter of the rain against the building vanished. Mutsumi opened her eyes slowly and focused on the other three figures occupying the room. She frowned slightly, seeming to be thinking about something.

"Is everything alright, Mutsumi?" Keitaro asked.

She looked up at him and tilted her head to one side, smiling in that way of hers. "I'm sorry to be such a bother, but we need to go outside again," she said. "So if you could please wake up Naru."

Even though she figured they wanted her to stay in bed, Motoko pushed back the covers of the futon and pulled herself up into a sitting position. Keitaro started to protest, but a threatening glare from the swordswoman silenced him, and he wisely turned his attention to awakening Naru.

Picking up on this, Mutsumi giggled. "Motoko can come with us," she said. "It will help her, too."

Just then, Naru drew in a deep breath and opened her eyes, looking around sleepily as she stretched. "Hm? What?"

"Mutsumi wants us to go back outside," Keitaro explained. "No idea why, though."

Nodding, Naru sat up, then climbed to her feet and stretched up on the balls of her feet, lifting her arms high above her head as she yawned. "Okay, then," she replied, then looked toward her older friend. "No luck yet, then?"

The Okinawan native shook her head. "No, not yet," she answered. "But I have one last idea."

Minutes later, the group had transferred back up to the laundry deck. Seno's body was laid in the center of the deck, with Motoko kneeling on one side of him, Mutsumi standing on the other. Keitaro and Naru stood against the railing nearby, out of the way.

"Let's see if I remember how to do this right…" Mutsumi muttered to herself.

As Motoko watched, she sensed that aura blaze up from within Mutsumi, expanding outward and up toward the heavens. Suddenly, rain began to fall again. Almost immediately, Motoko realized that the water falling on her felt different than a normal rainstorm. Each drop of liquid that hit her seemed to revitalize and strengthen her.

Mutsumi clasped her hands together in front of her once again, then lifted her eyes toward the sky. A brilliant light pierced the gathered storm clouds, shining down on the patio deck, chasing away all the shadows. Bathed in the light, Motoko and Keitaro felt immense, immeasurable warmth and comfort, more than they had ever even dreamed of being capable of feeling.

For Naru, however, not only did she share in those feelings, but she also felt an astounding sense of familiarity, as if this wasn't the first time she had experienced this. She looked up toward the sky, directly toward the light, feeling a sense of purpose wash over her.

Two separate occasions of ripping fabric broke the relative silence of the scene, followed shortly by Keitaro letting out a startled exclamation and leaping away from Naru. Motoko looked over to see the cause of the commotion, and her eyes widened in absolute disbelief. There, bathed in the light falling from the sky, Naru stood staring into the heavens, her arms spread out to her sides in a gesture of welcome and comfort.

And protruding from her back was a pair of beautiful, feathered wings. They were as white as pure sugar, and the tips arced half a foot above the top of her head before sweeping back down for the lowest-reaching feather to be even with her knees.

Needless to say, both Motoko and Keitaro were absolutely dumbfounded. "N-Naru…" the Hinata kanrinin muttered.

Naru lowered her gaze from the heavens and looked toward her boyfriend, her face almost literally aglow with a serene beauty that none had ever seen before. She smiled warmly at him. "It looks like you were right about me all along," she said. "I _am_ an angel."

At that moment, Keitaro didn't know whether to prostrate himself before her or try to say something suave in reply. It was just as well that he couldn't decide; his mind had taken leave of its ability to form coherent speech, and his motor functions were in the process of rebooting.

Turning toward him with a soft sweep of her wings, Naru crossed the handful of steps separating them and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him. The sheer amount of love flowing out of her and into him debilitated him even further. At this point, he was almost certain he would fail any government-sponsored sobriety test.

After just a moment's time, Naru pulled away from him and turned back toward Mutsumi, moving over to stand beside the dark-haired woman. She looked down at Seno's body, then lifted her head up and stared into the falling rain.

Suddenly, it was as if someone had pressed a universal pause button. The falling rain had been completely stopped wherever the individual drops had been falling. Naru reached up her right hand and gently touched one of the drops of rain about to land on Seno's body. The raindrop in question glowed white, and Motoko could sense a powerful holy aura now contained in that one drop of moisture.

With a long blink of her eyes, Naru unfroze the rain, and the enchanted droplet splashed down onto Seno's chest. For several moments, there was absolutely no movement on the deck except for the rain. Then, Motoko belatedly realized that she could sense something new, something very familiar. Tentatively, she reached out two fingers of her right hand toward Seno's neck.

As her fingers made contact with his skin, and she felt the pulsing beneath her fingers, her heart skipped a beat. "He's alive!" she gasped, then looked up at Naru and Mutsumi, her eyes once again overflowing with tears. "Thank you! Thank you both! I'll never be able to repay you for giving him back to me."

Naru smiled and laid a hand on the swordswoman's shoulder. "You do not owe me anything, Motoko," she said. "All I wish is that you two will be happy together."

Motoko slid her hand away from Seno's neck, reaching down to grab his hand and hold it tightly. She relished the warmth beginning to return to his hand, and felt her spirit soar when his fingers curled around hers. "We will," she said with a smile.

Beside her, Seno groaned and opened his eyes. He laid still for a moment while his vision focused, then he looked around the deck. "I guess I'm still dead," he muttered. "Motoko's with me now, Mutsumi just performed Great Gospel, and Naru has wings. So I guess this is my version of Heaven, with the pop culture generator working overtime."

Keitaro chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head, finally recovered from the sight of Naru as an angel. "No, you're alive," he told his friend. "Thanks to Naru and Mutsumi. Welcome back."

The swordsman sat up and scooted toward Motoko, slipping his left arm around her neck and gently pulling her back against him. He rested his chin on her right shoulder and said quietly, "It's good to be back."

_I missed this,_ Motoko thought, leaning back into his warmth as she let go of his hand and held onto his arm with both of her hands. "Everyone is going to be shocked," she said, "but at the same time, they'll be happy." She took a deep breath and leaned her head back, focusing on the simple sensation of the rain falling on her face.

"I hope they'll all forgive me for what I did," he said. "I hope you will, too."

Mutsumi took a moment to study the attentiveness of the couple, determined that they were no more aware of what was going on around them than the man on the moon, and motioned for Keitaro and Naru to silently follow her. The pair caught on immediately, and the three of them discreetly left Motoko and Seno to themselves.

"It is I who should be begging for forgiveness," the swordswoman replied quietly. "Theirs, and yours." A faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "But, since you see yourself at fault, then know that I cannot but forgive you."

"Even hearing that, the knowledge of what happened to you still burns at my soul."

She went very still, moving only to look back over her shoulder at him. "Seno, that was not your fault," she said. "You had no way of knowing what that…_thing_ was planning to do. I do not hold you responsible for what it did to me. In fact, I feel more secure, knowing that you love me more than life itself. So please, don't continue to condemn yourself over something you could not control. We _will_ make the best of it, and it will come no closer to destroying us than it already has."

Gently, she pulled herself from his arm, then turned around to directly face him, staring into his eyes with a determination so solid that it matched the folded steel of her blade for strength. "I will _not_ lose you again, Seno," she said. "You are too important to me. I love you. Now and forever."

Before he could reply, Motoko leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, kissing him with the full force of her relief that she had not lost him forever. As she closed her eyes, she could feel a shift in their positioning that indicated he was laying back against the deck so as not to suddenly lose his balance and fall. She wrapped her arms around him, not breaking the kiss, as the rain fell around them, ignored by the couple. For the two of them, it was a kiss of new beginnings. A kiss of how things should be.

A kiss of return.

--

Meanwhile, Mutsumi, Naru, and Keitaro had made their way down to the commons room of the apartment, where the other tenants were all waiting anxiously for news concerning Mutsumi's sudden belief that she could revive their fallen friend. Kitsune was the first to notice them coming down the stairs from the second floor.

"Well?" she asked. "Did it work?"

With a bright smile on her face, Mutsumi nodded. "Yes," she answered. "With Naru's help, I brought Seno back."

Su jumped up from her seat and leapt across the room in a single bound, perching cat-like on the stairway banister. "Really?" she asked in her usual hyper tone. "What did Naru do?"

"She used her special powers to help me, of course," Mutsumi replied, laughing lightly.

"Naru has special powers?" Su asked, hopping down from the railing to dart around the Tokyo University hopeful, poking and prodding at her randomly. "What special powers does Naru have?"

"Show them, Naru," Mutsumi said.

With a rueful smile, Naru closed her eyes and lifted her arms out away from her side. A barely-visible shiver coursed over her, and then without warning, her wings unfurled from her back, spreading out sideways until the tips extended farther out than her arms. Her wings retracted at the same time she lowered her arms, shifting in and down to their 'resting' state as she opened her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Whew, that's tiring," she said, then looked at the reactions of her fellow tenants.

Shinobu had outright fainted, and was sprawled on her back on the couch.

Kitsune stared with both eyes wide open, and was looking back and forth between her friend and the sake bottle in her hand. After a moment of this, she threw the bottle into the kitchen, where it promptly landed in the sink and shattered.

"I'm never touching a bottle again," she announced, as if that would explain to her why her high school friend had suddenly grown wings.

Su was already behind Naru, poking and prodding at her wings, and gently pulling on the white feathers. The attentions caused Naru's wings to twitch automatically, and her right wing brushed over Su's head. "They're soft!" the hyperactive girl announced. "Like pillows, only better!"

Haruka's jaw had dropped open, and her cigarette was currently smoldering on the floor. She stamped it out seemingly out of instinct, but simply stared at Naru and had to forcibly refrain from crossing herself. She shook her head as if to clear it, and managed to return her expression to its usual neutral look. "So, I suppose there's some sort of explanation for this?" she asked. "I mean, those wings _are_ real, aren't they?"

"They are," Naru replied with a nod, awkwardly attempting to fold her right wing around in front of her. She was still getting used to having them, after all, and hadn't even begun to master the muscle control necessary to move them. "I feel as if I've been an angel my entire life, but it's just that my powers had been sealed until recently."

"That sounds accurate," Keitaro said, tapping his chin with his finger. "I never noticed the wing scars on your back before we started dating."

Naru's face swiftly reddened as she realized exactly _how_ he'd managed to see her bare back before Mutsumi had discovered the scars on her back. Kitsune and Haruka caught the blush, and a few days ago, they would've expected Naru to flatten Keitaro just on principal. But instead, as they were coming to expect, she reacted in a more playful manner, flicking her right wing out to smack Keitaro lightly in the face with it.

"Hentai," she accused with a smile. "You looked pretty hard for them, didn't you?"

He sneezed as several of her feathers tickled his nose, then laughed. "It certainly wasn't my intention, but I never complained," he replied.

She shook her head and folded her wing back behind her. "I think my powers were probably sealed because I was so violent and distrustful," she said, her expression sobering. Then she smiled, and stepped to the side toward Keitaro, wrapping her arms around his neck. "But thanks to Kei, and Seno's intervention, I'm not as mean as I used to be."

"Ara, you weren't mean, Naru," Mutsumi said, smiling warmly. "You were just shy, and were afraid that you wouldn't be a good girlfriend for Keitaro."

"That was no excuse for being so mean to him all the time," Naru replied, stepping around to Keitaro's back and all but draping herself over him. "Always calling him names and belittling all the good things he did for us, and telling him he had no hope, and hitting him all the time." Her expression wavered, and she seemed to be about to cry. "It's…really no wonder why I lost my powers…"

"Hey, hey, hey, what's that sad face for?" a male voice that was _not_ Keitaro's called from behind them on the first floor. "You're doing a bad job of convincing me I'm not dead."

"Seno?" Haruka called.

"Seno!" Kitsune and Su shouted at the same time.

At that, the swordsman appeared on the landing behind Naru and Keitaro, with Motoko at his side. He had changed out of his bloodied nightclothes and into his usual "Buddy Jesus" t-shirt and shorts, and there were no outward visible signs that he'd been dead just a few hours ago.

He grinned his trademark grin and raised his left hand in his usual greeting. "Yo," he said. "Sorry to worry everyone."

Haruka was the first to speak up. "What we really should be discussing is whether or not _you_ are okay," she said.

"It's no big," he replied, waving it off. "Nothing a Phoenix Down couldn't fix."

Mutsumi giggled, Keitaro sighed, Naru and Haruka shook their heads, Kitsune snickered, and Motoko put her hand to her forehead. His death experience clearly hadn't changed his personality any.

He sobered suddenly. "Seriously, though, everything's fine now," he said. "Motoko and I sorted it all out. She doesn't blame me for what happened, and she managed to convince me to forgive myself."

"I would have rather been pulling teeth," the swordswoman muttered. "My own, with rusty pliers."

"Your wit's improving," he told her with a grin.

Kitsune chose that moment to butt in. "Well, Seno's back from the dead and everything's peachy here again," she said. "You know what that means…"

"Party!" Su finished, jumping down to the first floor and running around the room excitedly.

"What happened to swearing off booze?" Haruka asked, deadpan.

"Well…you know that I wasn't going to hold up to that in the first place," the fox replied, sweating. "So let's just get on with the fun!"

--

_2108 hours, local time_

Later that night, with most of the Hinata residents pleasantly smashed, Seno wandered outside to the front porch of the apartments, where Mutsumi sat staring up at the moon, nursing a bottle of fairly-weak Bicardi beer. The swordsman himself was a far cry from sober, but he mostly stuck to the same sort of liquor that Mutsumi was consuming, and thus still retained most of his higher functions.

"Get a little too wild in there for you?" he asked her.

The watermelon-loving anemic looked up at him and smiled warmly. "No, I just wanted to sit and think for a while," she replied, a serious note in her voice that conflicted with the intoxicated blush on her face.

"Mind some company?"

"Not at all."

The swordsman seated himself beside her at a respectable distance, then stared down into the partially-empty bottle in his hand. "Man, some of the mess that happened today sounds more like something out of one of those wacky fanfictions I read," he said after a few moments. "Some ghost thing takes my form and rapes Motoko, I get myself killed over it, then I'm revived by what I _still_ swear up and down is Aeris' Great Gospel overdrive, and now Naru turns out to have been an angel all this time."

"It is rather confusing, isn't it?" she asked, still staring at the moon. "I wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't experienced it myself."

He gave her an evaluative stare. "You know something."

"Maybe I do," she answered cryptically.

"Tell me," he said softly, but there was no mistaking the urgency or the authoritative tone in his voice. "That thing is still a threat to us, to Motoko. I won't stand for it. I need to know about it."

Sighing, Mutsumi leaned forward and rested her arms on her upraised knees, looking down at the ground between her feet. "How good is your history?"

"Japanese, American, pop culture, or other?"

She smiled. "Japanese."

"Passable."

"Do you remember the Meiji revolution?"

He laughed. "Of course I do. Nobody in Japan doesn't know about that. What about it?"

"Do you recall the accounts of the hitokiri, the manslayers?"

"Are you talking about historical hitokiri, or the Rurouni Kenshin brand? Because I was never really interested in Kenshin. I just couldn't get into it."

"The historical hitokiri. Specifically, Kawakami Gensai."

Seno leaned back until he was resting on his elbows, looking off into the distance with an unfocused glaze to his eyes. "I remember vaguely that he's the guy they based Kenshin off of, and that he was supposedly the deadliest swordmaster in all of Japan."

Mutsumi nodded. "Kawakami Gensai was one of the four hitokiri manslayers that tried to prevent Western influence from making its way into Japan," she explained. "He was one of the few that actually lived past the end of the Meiji revolution, but a few years later he was executed under false charges."

"Sucks to be him."

"This is the part where things take a sudden turn toward the strange and supernatural," Mutsumi said.

"You really think after all that's happened today that I'm not willing to put a little faith into the things I can't see with my own eyes?"

The Okinawan native chuckled. "It seems that, after his death, Kawakami was filled with so much resentment that he couldn't rest. His spirit remained on Earth, and for reasons unknown, it binds itself to the souls of powerful swordsmen or martial artists."

"Wait a second," Seno interrupted. "You're telling me this guy is an Unsent?"

"More or less."

"Figures. Next thing you know, we'll be seeing summoners and whatnot wandering around."

"It does appear that a lot of your favorite games seem to have quite the substantial basis, or perhaps an affect on, reality, doesn't it?"

"Seriously. So, you were saying? Why does he bind himself to powerful fighters?"

"Presumably, it's to siphon their natural ki and empower itself. Most of the time, the host isn't even aware of its presence."

Seno scowled. "So I could've had this frelling parasite in me for my entire life and I wouldn't have ever known it?"

"It's very likely. After the host dies, sometimes through means that the spirit has caused, it is unbound and roams until it finds another suitable host. From what I can gather, its ultimate goal is to gather enough power to be able to fully manifest itself, and likely avenge itself on what it perceives to be a great betrayal by Japan."

The swordsman snickered. "Heh, if he hated Western influence so much, I bet he had to really be hating living with me for so long." Then a thought occurred to him, and he scowled again. "Any indications that he's ever done what he did to Motoko to anyone before?"

Mutsumi shook her head. "No, and that's troubling. The fact that it was able to manifest itself and even take on your form suggests that, if it isn't already at the full power, it's very close. You are correct; the spirit of Kawakami is still a sincere threat to all of us."

"We're going to have to fight it, huh?" he asked rhetorically, looking up at the moon. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this. I bet it'll be really tough. Some of us may not even survive."

"That's always a possibility," Mutsumi whispered, her voice carrying a deep note of sadness. "I don't want to lose any of my friends…"

"Neither do I, but it's something we have to deal with," he replied. He looked at the bottle in his hand, then tossed it aside and stood up. "Well, if there's the chance that some of us may end up dying while fighting this thing, there's something I want to take care of first."

Tilting her head to the side, Mutsumi looked up at him. "Something to do with Motoko, I wager?"

He chuckled. "You know, between the way you dress, your hairstyle, your attitude, your perceptiveness, and the fact that you revived me with a heavenly rain, now I'm really convinced that you're a living, breathing Aeris." He nodded to her. "But yeah, it has to do with Motoko. Starting tomorrow, I'm going on a little trip to Kyoto."


	7. Love's Striking Blade

_"Combat is the best judge of intent, particularly when sentient weapons are involved. A weapon like Shinaijou would not have allowed itself to be used dishonestly."  
_- Tsuruko Aoyama; 'Heavenly Sword, Revised Edition'

**Chapter VI:  
Love's Striking Blade**

_July 28, 2006  
Hinata Aparments, Hinata, Japan  
0610 hours, local time_

Waking up shortly after the sun rose was not something that Keitaro was very fond of. Or, more accurately, being forcefully awakened just after sunrise was not something he was fond of. He was very much the kind of guy who liked to sleep until his alarm clock went off, then hit the snooze button a few times.

But the slamming open of his door was quite counterproductive to that wish. Equally so was Motoko standing in his doorway, screaming "Keitaro!"

From where he had been asleep, sitting at the desk in his room, Keitaro jumped up, banging both his knees on the underside of the desk. He let out a pained yelp, then sat back down, rubbed his knees, and winced over in Motoko's general direction. "Motoko? What's wrong?"

Further back in Keitaro's room, a lump on his futon shifted and then sat up, the covers sliding away to reveal Naru groggily rubbing her head and looking with one eye open toward the door. "Eh? Motoko?"

The sight of Naru sleeping in Keitaro's futon struck a chord with the old habits ingrained into Motoko's mind, and before she could check herself, she found herself hissing, "What were you two doing?"

Keitaro and Naru exchanged looks, and both visibly reddened. Keitaro turned back to Motoko and tapped his index fingers together. "We were up most of the night studying, and by the time we realized what time it was, Naru was too tired to go back to her room. So I let her sleep in my bed and I slept here, at the desk."

A red tinge crept onto Motoko's face as she realized she'd come dangerously close to making one of the unwarranted assumptions she had managed to avoid making for several weeks now. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to judge. What the two of you do is none of my business."

Naru yawned, then smiled. "It's okay, Motoko," she said. "I understand how this situation probably looked. So what is it you wanted?"

She walked into the room and seated herself at Keitaro's desk. There had been a sheet of paper in her hand the entire time, and she laid it on the desk. Keitaro picked it up, turned it over so he could read it, and then read aloud, "'Dear Motoko, I'm going to Kyoto for a few days. Don't follow me. See you in a day or two. Love, Seno.'"

The Hinata kanrinin looked up at the swordswoman and blinked. "This is pretty suspicious," he said. "I wonder why he'd up and go to Kyoto so suddenly."

"The thought has occurred to me," Motoko said, looking at the desk's surface, "that he may have gone to see aneue, to seek some form of absolution for what happened to me."

Naru and Keitaro exchanged another glance. "Chances are good that Tsuruko wouldn't look very kindly on that," Keitaro said flatly. "And knowing Seno, he'd probably paint himself as being at fault."

Naru, on the other hand, was not so certain. "I think you may be reading a little too much into this," she argued. "After all, he was very happy to be reunited with you, Motoko. Perhaps you're just worrying about nothing?"

"Maybe," the swordswoman replied, coloring slightly as she looked down again. "It still worries me, though. Even though he asked me not to, I want to go after him, to see what he's doing."

"And if necessary, save him from himself," Keitaro finished dryly.

Sighing, Naru shook her head and shrugged theatrically. "I still say it's not what you two think, but I'll go along." She smiled at her friends. "Just to make sure you two stay out of trouble."

"Thank you, Naru, Keitaro," Motoko said. "I appreciate everything the two of you have done for Seno and I."

Keitaro smiled. "Think nothing of it, Motoko," he replied. "Besides, since he was the one that got Naru and I together in the first place, we owe it to him to make sure that you and he are happy too." He looked between the two women sitting in his room. "So I guess we'll leave after breakfast, then? It doesn't make sense to go looking for him on an empty stomach, after all."

--

_Kyoto, Japan  
1136 hours, local time_

The mountains of Kyoto were beautiful to behold at this time of year. The sakura trees were in full bloom, filling the air with a gentle flurry of pink-and-white petals. Pausing halfway up the stone steps leading to the not-so-secret mountain dojo of the Shinmeiryu school of swordsmanship, Seno reached up his left hand into the swirling downpour of sakura petals.

Out of the countless hundreds of blossoms falling from the trees, one single petal fell into his outstretched hand, alighting gently on his palm. Bringing his hand down before his face, he looked at the petal in his hand, watching as it rocked back and forth in the gentle breeze.

"Sorry mate, but as nice as you look, you can't even hold a candle to the girl I've come here for," he said.

Almost immediately, a gust of wind picked up the sakura petal, carrying it up and away from the swordsman, as though the petal had been offended by his statement. Chuckling, he continued up the stone steps.

After another minute, he cleared the final step and looked out at the Shinmeiryu dojo before him. There was a vast clearing directly ahead of him, with at least a hundred meters separating him from the fort-like wooden gate into the dojo. Mountains rose up on either side of the dojo grounds, creating a majestic view and a rare glimpse into Japan's history.

Resting his left hand on the familiar hilt of his sword, Seno walked forward, following the stone path that cut through the grass of the clearing, leading directly to the gate. As he approached, a man nearing middle-age, clad in a red hakama and white gi, with a sword at his right hip, stepped between Seno and the gate.

"Halt, outsider," the man, evidently a gate guard, said. "State your business with this dojo."

The swordsman paused just long enough to give the man a once-over, appraising his skills. _No-go. This guy's not even a challenge to me. Motoko could have beaten him in her sleep, way back when I first showed up at the Hinata and she really sucked._

He barely managed to contain the smirk those thoughts brought up. "I wish to speak with Aoyama Tsuruko," he said. "Concerning her sister, Aoyama Motoko."

The gate guard paused for half a heartbeat, then said, "And whom shall I tell her is calling?"

"Nakakami Seno."

With a stand-fast gesture, the guard opened the gate and disappeared inside, leaving Seno standing at the entrance of the dojo. He leaned back in place and crossed his arms behind his head, yawning widely. He was still pretty tired.

He didn't like having just up and left in the middle of the night like he had, leaving just a note for Motoko not to follow him. If he knew nothing else about his girlfriend, he knew she'd show the note to Keitaro, and probably Naru, and then none-too-brilliant Keitaro would immediately assume the worst, and put together some sort of rescue expedition to save him from getting himself killed. Again.

Chuckling, he muttered to himself, "In retrospect, it would probably have been a better idea to tell her I came here to get something for her. It wouldn't be a lie at all, just not telling her the entire thing. Sometimes I feel like my life is being scripted just to set up these kind of things, because it was pretty dumb just to go 'Don't follow me,' knowing full well that she will."

He shrugged. "But hey, can't help it if I want to surprise her. It'll definitely blow her away."

"Oh, is that my sister you're referring to?" a feminine voice asked.

Seno focused his attention to the new figure standing in front of him, and knew immediately that she had to be Tsuruko. The resemblance to Motoko was amazing. Take off a few years, get rid of those sideburn-esque extensions, and this woman would be identical to Motoko.

He knew of her by reputation only; the one time that Tsuruko had come to the Hinata for a visit, Seno had been away at an anime convention. When he heard of what had transpired during the elder Aoyama's visit, he wished that he'd skipped the convention. Just thinking about how Motoko and Keitaro had almost been forced to marry still made his stomach churn. There were days when he sorely wanted to throttle his old childhood friend for that incident.

Shaking off his musings, he clutched his sword and bowed at the waist to the woman before him. "Aoyama Tsuruko, I presume?" he asked. "It is an honor to finally meet you."

Smiling, the woman tilted her head to one side. "And you must be Nakakami Seno," she replied. "It is nice to finally meet you, as well. Won't you come inside and have some tea?"

"Thank you," he said, standing up and following her inside the gates of the dojo.

She led him to a small building just to the right after entering the main gate, which was attached to a much larger building. Opening the door, she slipped off her sandals and stepped inside. Seno followed suit, and seated himself on the closer of the two cushions situated inside.

Tsuruko seated herself on the other cushion, then reached to her side, where a tea kettle was sitting idly on a small table. She poured two cups of tea and handed one to Seno, then waited until he took a sip before sipping her own tea. "I've heard quite a bit about you, Seno. Motoko writes about you often in her letters. She fancies you, I think. Moreso than the Hinata's manager, at least. Maybe it was good that I decided not to force them to marry."

Seno's only visible reaction to that seemingly-innocent statement was a subtle twitch of his right eye. _Yeah, it's good because I probably would've killed Keitaro, if Naru hadn't beaten me to it._

Opening one eye, Tsuruko regarded him evenly. "I can tell just by looking at you that you fancy Motoko, yourself," she said calmly. "That is why I say it is good that I didn't force her to marry Keitaro. You are very obviously interested in her, and it seems she's also quite interested in you."

That statement got a more visible reaction out of the swordsman. His eyes widened as he thought, _What? I thought I was good at keeping my feelings hidden!_ He paused, considering. _Then again, since Motoko and I got together, I haven't bothered to hide how I feel about her. That's probably what Tsuruko is picking up on…_

Setting her cup down on the table, Tsuruko smiled, shifting from serious to carefree in under a second. "So! You say that you wished to talk to me about my sister? Are you going to ask for my permission to marry her?"

He opened his mouth to do just that, then realized that she had taken the words right out of his mouth. "Take the wind out of my sails, why don't you?" he muttered.

"What's that?"

"Yes!" he hastily said, then bowed toward her, his head banging on the table as he did so. He grunted, but said nothing. "I have come to ask your permission to seek Motoko's hand in marriage."

Tsuruko blinked at the prostrating swordsman before her, then smiled again. "Oh, you really were?" she asked. "I was only kidding. But, hmm… This does seem rather sudden. Motoko hasn't even mentioned to me that you two are dating yet."

"We, ah, we've only been dating for about a week," he explained, knowing full well that such an admission would make it seem like he wasn't even taking the time to consider the weight and responsibilities of what he was seeking.

"That's an awfully-short amount of time for you to have decided you want to spend the rest of your life with her," Tsuruko said, all business once again. "In fact, it's an absolutely absurd proposition."

_You're one to talk about absurd propositions. You tried to make Motoko marry Keitaro! With that one act, you would've screwed over _four _lives._

Tsuruko pursed her lips, tapping her left index finger against them. "However, you are obviously very serious about it, since you've come all this way to ask for my permission. I wonder, did something happen between you two?"

"Does me dying, coming back to life, and realizing that unless I had her by my side for the rest of my days, my coming back would be pointless, count as something having happened?"

The elder Aoyama blinked in confusion, processing what he'd just said. "I do believe," she finally said, "that this is one story that needs telling."

And so he did just that. He told her about the night that the hitokiri spirit had assumed a corporeal form and raped Motoko, using his own visual appearance to make her believe it had been him. He told her how Motoko had attacked him without warning, and with plenty of deadly intent, the next morning, how he had had to drag her admission of being raped out of her, and how he had, driven by guilt, subsequently run himself through on her sword. He then told her of how he had visited Motoko in her dream, and how Mutsumi had managed to bring him back to life, and how that somehow involved Naru being an angel. And how during those course of events, both Seno and Motoko had realized that the love they had for one another was so strong that it could not properly be described in words.

After he had finished telling his story, Tsuruko sat back on her heels, her left eyebrow raised as she picked up her cup and took several sips of tea. "That…is a very interesting turn of events," she said. "While it both saddens and enrages me that my younger sister's chastity was stolen from her in such a manner, it pleases me that you love her enough to shoulder the burden of responsibility, even when you were not at fault. The issue with this rogue spirit is very troubling, and I promise that we here at the Shinmeiryu will look into ways of dealing with it."

Seno waited anxiously for her to say something about the reason he had come here, but several minutes passed in silence as she slowly sipped her tea. Once she had emptied her cup, she refilled it again, took another sip, and set it down on the table.

"I apologize for having made you wait for my decision, but I admit that all of this has come as a surprise and I have had to take a few minutes to catch up," she said. "You seek my permission to marry Motoko. I will give it to you under one condition."

In a casual, nonthreatening manner, Tsuruko reached to her left side and picked up her sheathed sword, laying it across her lap. Then she looked up at Seno and the expression on her face must have been what Motoko had described on a number of occasions as the 'Demon Eyes.'

"If you want my permission to marry Motoko," Tsuruko said, "then you must impress me."

Seno grinned and dropped his left hand down to the hilt of the Shinaijou. "I was waiting for you to say that…"

--

At that exact moment, Motoko, Keitaro, and Naru were stepping off the train at the main station in Kyoto, perhaps a mile away from the mountain range in which the Shinmeiryu dojo was located. The two Tokyo U hopefuls looked around in awe at all the blooming sakura trees surrounding the train station, and lining just about every street in the city. Motoko was also cheered by the sight of the blooming trees, smiling at the wind-blown shower of soft white-and-pink petals.

Leading the group, Keitaro already knew the way to the Shinmeiryu dojo, from the last time he'd come to Kyoto, forced to be Motoko's fighting partner against Tsuruko, all because Motoko had lied in order to avoid leaving Tokyothe Hinata. Walking behind the chatty couple of Keitaro and Naru, Motoko blushed as she thought about how very, very close she had come to losing any chance of enjoying her romance with Seno.

Her left hand came up, wrapping around the medallion she now wore around her neck as a permanent part of her attire. Whether it was casual, uniform, or training clothing, she never went without it. The only times she took it off were when she bathed and slept.

For her, the medallion, despite being a cheap trinket marketed by Disney due to the release of Dead Man's Chest, was a symbol of the love she had with Seno. If, those few months ago, she had failed to destroy the demonic spirit in the Hina blade, if she had not managed to sufficiently impress her sister, then she would have been married to Keitaro right now. While just looking at how he and Naru were together, she knew that Keitaro would have been good to her, but she knew now, with the perfect clarity of hindsight, that Keitaro was meant for Naru, not for her. Seno was the one meant for her, and if she had failed to impress Tsuruko, all four of their lives would have been ruined.

_It is for the best,_ she thought, smiling, _that things turned out the way they have. Perhaps aneue did what she did to ensure that this would happen…_

Belatedly, she realized that Naru and Keitaro had paused at the bottom of the steps leading up to the Shinmeiryu dojo, and were looking back at her. "Is everything alright, Motoko?" Naru asked.

"Sorry," the swordswoman murmured, catching up with her friends. "I was just thinking about the last time we were here in Kyoto…"

Naru stiffened immediately, and Keitaro winced. Neither of them had fond memories of the last trip to Kyoto, either. As the trio began their ascent up the stairs, silence passed between them for a few moments. Finally, Keitaro spoke up, "It's just good that things turned out the way they did. This is the way things are supposed to be."

Smiling, Motoko nodded. "I agree," she said. "All things considered, it's quite fortunate that you tried to use the Hina blade to help us, Naru."

The angelic girl laughed. "It was one of the few times that my impulsive nature turned out to be beneficial, wasn't it?" she asked. "If I hadn't been possessed by that sword, then you never would've impressed Tsuruko enough for her to declare you the victor, and where would we all be now?"

"Not here," Keitaro replied, taking her hand in his and twining their fingers together.

Motoko watched them hold hands with a wistful smile, and her right hand instinctively clenched as though she were holding Seno's hand. When she realized what she was doing, she felt a coldness along that side that she knew was because he wasn't standing close beside her, the warmth of his body emanating into hers.

Her smile dropping a little, she looked up toward the end of the stairs up to the dojo. _I really do believe that I overreacted to your note, Seno,_ she thought to herself. _It's just that I can't bear the thought of losing you again._ She smiled. _You're probably just here asking Tsuruko what kind of things I like so you can surprise me with something. That's just how you are._

"Motoko, you're spacing out again," Naru said, smiling.

"I was just thinking," the swordswoman explained, "that Seno probably came here to ask Tsuruko about my interests so that he could surprise me with some sort of gift or date."

"That sounds like something he'd do, alright," Keitaro offered. "If you girls thought _I_ was selfless, you haven't seen Seno do it."

"I have had reason to consider whether you learned your own selflessness from him, Keitaro," Motoko replied. "When I saw him in that dream, all he was concerned with was the state of my emotional well-being. He wasn't at all concerned that he was dead. In fact, were it not for the knowledge that he would be physically separated from me for the rest of my life, if not longer, he seemed to be enjoying the fact that he could do things like control peoples' dreams."

"Never really can tell what Seno's thinking," Keitaro said. "He's about as predictable as a lightning strike."

The corner of Motoko's mouth quirked up as she smirked. "A fitting analogy, I think," she agreed. "The night that he helped the two of you to confess to each other, I certainly never knew what hit me. All I knew was that it felt right. And the next morning, I woke up to find that I was in love with the greatest man I had ever met." She paused. "No offense, Keitaro."

The apartment manager smiled and shook his head. "None taken, Motoko," he replied. "Seno is much better for you than I could ever be, I'll readily admit that. You two are going to have a long and happy life together."

Her smirk transformed into a smile as she noted that they were clearing the final stone steps up to the dojo and were now walking toward the gates. "Thank you, Keitaro," she said. "You and Naru likewise, will be happy together for the rest of your lives." She closed one eye in a playful wink and stuck her tongue out at the couple. "In a few years, the dorms are going to be even more lively than they already are."

In response, Naru reached over and looped her free arm around Motoko's neck, pulling the taller woman down to her level. "Oh, that it will be, but don't you dare think that it'll just be because of Keitaro and I," she said. "You and Seno are going to contribute to that, too!"

The swordswoman blushed, but didn't deny what she knew would eventually become truth anyway. She likewise looped her arm around Naru's neck and said, "One thing is certain. Any children born into the Hinata will have more than enough love and devotion to be raised with."

Naru beamed as her eyes lost a little focus, imagining how life around the Hinata would change when a number of wild children were thrown into the mix. "Kitsune will have to stop drinking," she said. "And Haruka will have to stop smoking."

"This is the point at which Seno would usually say 'Good luck with that,' but considering we are discussing the health of our future children, this isn't a topic to be laughed about," Motoko replied. "Though I suppose that it would be unfair of us to attempt to force them to give up their habits so soon, especially considering that there are no prospects for children yet."

Keitaro tilted his head to the side. "You're giving this an awful lot of thought, aren't you, Motoko?" he asked. "I mean, it _is_ something that needs a lot of consideration, but you seem to be thinking more about it even than you need to."

Blushing furiously, Motoko looked away and didn't reply.

Fortunately for her, the trio had reached the gates by then, and the same guard that had stopped Seno bowed in Motoko's direction. "Greetings, Miss Motoko," he said. "Are you here to see your sister?"

Attempting to regain her composure, and mostly failing, Motoko bowed to the guard in return. "Yes, I am," she answered. "Is she available?"

"She received a visitor a short time ago, but I have not seen him leave. Allow me to go check. If you'll excuse me."

As the guard left to check on Tsuruko, Motoko exchanged a glance with Naru and Keitaro. All three of them knew immediately that Tsuruko's 'guest' was none other than Seno, himself. Motoko felt a little ball of dread forming in her gut, and prayed that her more recent thoughts on the matter were the correct ones.

"Motoko? Ho, ho, ho, what are you doing here, little sister?"

The swordswoman spun around to find Tsuruko standing inside the open gate, her unsheathed sword resting lightly on her left shoulder. The elder Aoyama was blinking at the sight of Motoko, Naru, and Keitaro, seeming to be genuinely surprised by their presence.

"A-aneue!" Motoko uttered, her eyes locking on her sister's unsheathed sword. _God, no. Was I right with my first thoughts? Is she trying to hunt Seno right now?_

Tsuruko, ever insightful, noticed Motoko staring at her sword, and gave her sister a reassuring smile. "Oh, this? If you are worried that I am trying to harm your friend Seno, you needn't be. I simply wanted to judge his skills."

Placing her right hand over her heart, Motoko visibly relaxed, thanking the gods that she had been wrong. "So Seno did come here?" she asked.

"Yes, and I suspected that he didn't want you to know why he came," Tsuruko replied. At her sister's mortified expression, Tsuruko hastily added, "He wanted to ask me something that would make a lovely gift for you. I asked him for a test of his skill in exchange."

Naru and Keitaro watched a large bead of sweat form on the back of Motoko's head. "You…haven't changed at all, aneue," she said.

Smiling, Tsuruko placed her free hand over her mouth. "Ho, ho, I suppose I haven't," she replied. Then her expression sobered. "I don't think Seno would want his surprise spoiled by knowing that you three are here. So if you wish to see our little duel, then you should quickly find a place to hide."

Turning in a full circle, Tsuruko pointed with her sword toward a small building overlooking a meditation courtyard filled with large stone statues. "You can hide in that building and watch from there," she said. "I can sense that Seno is recuperating there."

"Recuperating?" Motoko asked, paling.

The elder Aoyama turned toward her sister with a sheepish expression and nervously scratched the back of her head. "I'm afraid I caught him off-guard earlier and struck him a minor blow in the side," she explained. "It's not a serious injury, but it can cost him if he doesn't account for it."

"TSURUKO!" Motoko all but screamed.

"Oh, that's the first time you've called me by name since you were very little," Tsuruko said, smiling again. "I see that Seno is drawing you out of your emotional shell. Perhaps he's better for you than I originally thought, and believe me, my first impression of him was already very good."

Her eyes widening, Motoko's entire face flushed red. "I…but…you…I…"

Fighting to contain her smile, Tsuruko turned away from her sister. "The three of you should probably go hide in that building now," she said. "I need to get over there, or Seno will wonder why I'm taking so long."

With that, the older woman shot toward the destined battleground, leaping across rooftops before disappearing down into the courtyard. As soon as she had done so, the trio could hear the clashing of steel.

--

Tsuruko brought her blade down hard in an overhead strike that began on her right side, the edge of her blade singing through the air. Seno stepped back out of the path of the blow, and continued moving backwards as she sent a follow-through left-to-right horizontal slash toward him. As she stepped forward and shifted her grip on the blade to swing back to the left, Seno finally stepped into the blow, their blades crossing in the open air between them with the striking tang of steel meeting steel.

Bringing her sword up and over his, Tsuruko executed a short cut to slap his blade aside, then reared up to bring her blade crashing down on his head from over hers. He twisted aside, then brought Shinaijou around to strike at her head. She lifted her sword up, twisting it to angle the blade skyward as she did so, and intercepted his attack. The strength of her parry forced Seno's weapon up, and she immediately brought her blade back down, but his own blade was already in position to stop the blow in its tracks and send it back.

Seno struck forward, leaning his weight into an overhead strike, but she leaned her body out of its path and answered with a quick strike at his torso. He struck her blade with his own, deflecting the blow, and then brought his arms down, aiming a strike to her midsection. Tsuruko's blade knocked his aside, and she continued to turn, adding the momentum and power of a full rotation into the power she sent with her next swing toward his head.

Realizing the power behind the coming strike, Seno maneuvered the Shinaijou to intercept the blow farther away from him, leaning back to put his upper body strength into the block. The crack of their blades meeting echoed over the courtyard, but unlike the previous blade locks, neither gave ground in this one.

In this contest, Tsuruko had the advantage of leverage, an advantage she utilized as she pushed against Seno's blade, carefully twisting hers to bring the point of her sword closer and closer to Seno's shoulder while using the length of her sword to keep him from being able to strike her. In a desperate gamble to counter this bad situation, Seno grabbed his own sword near its point and used that grip as a fulcrum, pushing forward on the hilt of his blade until he had turned hers almost completely over, her blade beneath his, his back almost pressed against her chest. While this solved the dilemma of her being able to take out his sword arm, she now had a direct path to slide her blade along the bottom of his and strike him full in the torso. So he did the only thing he could think of.

He jumped.

Twisting his body into a cartwheel, Seno sailed over the singing blade of Tsuruko's sword as she struck at him, causing her sword to pass through thin air as he twisted around to land on his feet behind her.

Immediately returning to the offensive, she turned and charged him, striking at his legs while he attempted to regain his balance. But he was nothing if not fast on the uptake, his blade intercepting hers and the two turning each other to the side. She spun, her right foot lashing out in a roundhouse kick aimed for his head, but his body contorted back beneath it. Sensing his momentary vulnerability, she once again struck at his legs, but he was already turning back toward her, lifting his right leg up and over her swinging blade.

As her momentum momentarily overbalanced her, he drew his blade back in his right hand to deal a finishing blow to the side of her head, but her sword rose to strike his aside even as she was righting herself. Unperturbed, he spun completely around to strike at her side, but she calmly stepped back, giving herself plenty of room to raise her left leg and block his strike with the underside of her sandal. She then jabbed her blade forward, intending to catch him in the back or side as he turned back around, but he had inverted his sword, supporting it with his hand on the back side near the point, and used the sharp edge of the blade to turn her strike aside.

Their duel once again turned into a saberlock as the two combatants stood toe-to-toe with each other, their blades locked together and hissing angrily as they battled for dominance. Neither combatant gave ground.

"Your skill with the blade is impressive, Seno," she said. "Are you not lying to me when you say you have no set school of swordsmanship?"

"It's no lie, Tsuruko," he replied. "I was trained by myself, all the video games I've played, and all the anime I've watched."

"Ho, ho, ho, that is very impressive," she said. "Regardless of how this turns out, I would gladly welcome a swordsman of your skill into the Shinmeiryu."

"I'm flattered by your offer. But if I may, I'd like to point out that so far, our duel has turned out almost identical to the duel between Margulis and Jin from the start of Xenosaga II."

"Oh?" she asked with a smile. "Which of us is which?"

"So far? You appear to be Margulis. Which means you're probably going to win."

"Ho, ho, ho, then you should probably change how our version of their duel ends, wouldn't you say?"

"Probably."

Without warning, Tsuruko's right foot shot up, slamming into Seno's chest and knocking him back slightly and breaking the lock. She swung her sword up in a punishing uppercut, forcing him to jump back and pull his arms and head aside in order to keep them attached to his body. Smiling slightly as he fell into her trap, she spun around and launched a punishing sidekick into his chest, the force of the ki infused into her kick sending him skidding back across the ground.

"_Gurenken_!" she shouted.

His balance failing, Seno fell down to a knee, the tip of his blade driving into the ground and finally dragging him to a halt. A dozen feet away from him, Tsuruko leapt high into the air, her sword raised above her head as she sailed down gracefully toward him, intent on finishing him right then and there. Scrambling to get away, Seno pushed himself awkwardly to his feet and back away from her, causing her blade to gouge into the ground, the charged ki in her sword discharging itself into the ground with an explosion of soil and grass.

In front of her, Seno fell flat on his back, but quickly turned the motion into a backwards roll to come up in a low crouch, his weight balanced on his right knee, his left leg forward, his left arm held behind him, and his right holding his sword out before him, sharp edge angled toward his left.

Not even bothering to stand back up to her full height, Tsuruko charged the swordsman, her "demon eyes" expression dominating her face, and struck out at Seno even as he scrambled backwards, their blades striking together in a series of rapid, back-and-forth blows that continually pressed the swordsman back.

Letting go of her blade with her left hand, she pressed that hand to the ground and kicked off with her feet, shoving out with that hand to add a rightward spin to her missile-like flight toward Seno. The swordsman efficiently managed to block her midair strikes, culminating in a powerful right-sided parry that ended her flight and sent him spinning away. As he turned, he found that one of the stone statues was directly in his path and that he was going to hit it, one way or another. So rather than slam face-first into it, he turned to face back toward Tsuruko, his back slamming hard into the statue.

She was right behind him, striking from the right, then the left, then taking her sword in both hands and drawing it back behind her right side like a baseball bat before swinging a brutal horizontal strike directly at his head. He blocked the first two blows, but chose to duck the third entirely, slipping away to his right even as her blade slashed into the statue he'd had his back against, ripping a gouge five inches deep and three tall all the way across it.

Leaping up, Seno kicked off of another statue, sailing back through the air toward Tsuruko. She leapt up to meet him in midair, their swords clashing together between them an amazing fourteen times before the duo finally answered gravity's call, falling back toward the grassy courtyard. Seno landed on the ground, stumbling slightly, but Tsuruko lighted herself atop the very statue that he had used as a springboard, balancing herself in defiance of the laws of physics for an instant before she leapt up and back off of it, rotating in midair to bring a powerful downward cleave smashing upon Seno's head.

At the last second, the swordsman raised his own blade, held right-handed by the hilt and left-handed near the point of the sword, and the impact of their blades clashing together sent shockwaves coursing through his upper body. He grunted, but held strong.

"Holding back, Tsuruko?" he asked. "You've barely used any of your ki-based attacks against me."

"If I am guilty of holding back," she replied, "then you are as well. I can sense a number of special skills that you could be using, but you opt for simple swordplay. Perhaps we are doing this for Motoko's sake. We both know that she does not want to see either of us severely hurt, so we are limiting ourselves to minimal use of ki techniques to minimize potential harm."

"Good point," he chuckled. "I didn't think about it, but that _is_ why I haven't used any of my overdrives."

"I, too, have refrained from my special techniques. Even though I am sometimes harsh on her, I do love my little sister, and I do not wish to see her hurt by bringing severe harm to you."

"A self-sacrificing love for Motoko is one thing both of us seem to share, isn't it?"

"Ho, ho, that it is, my potential brother-in-law."

Seno suddenly shoved up, knocking Tsuruko off-balance long enough for him to reclaim his feet and turn toward her, striking one-handed from his right side. She met his blow, holding the grapple for an instant before she shifted the hilt of her blade toward him, and striking upward with her sword. This knocked his arms up, once more leaving his chest vulnerable.

"_Gurenken_!" she shouted again, drawing back her left arm and slamming her palm into his chest.

The force of the blow knocked him back into the statue she had previously carved a gash into, and neither paid any attention to the resulting cracking sound that emanated from the statue. Drawing her sword back on her right side, Tsuruko rushed toward Seno, but drew up short when she noticed the statue tilting down toward her. Stopping in her tracks, she took herself out of harm's way with a series of fast, short leaps backwards.

Seno had noticed the crumbling statue at the same time, but his method of escape was far simpler. He simply ran out to the left side from beneath the statue, escaping its crushing weight with less than half the effort Tsuruko had used. As the statue crashed to the ground, breaking off several additional pieces of itself, Seno watched idly.

"I don't know what it is with me and causing property damage in every fight I get into…" he said. A sharp spike of pain shot through him, and he looked down. The wound Tsuruko had struck to his left side was bleeding through. All the fighting must've pulled it open even further.

"Ho, ho, ho, your injury seems to be bothering you," she said, holding her sword loosely in her right hand. "Do you want to forfeit? I don't think that fighting yourself to death will make Motoko very happy."

"Not on your life," he grunted back, pressing his hand to his side. "I'll finish this all the way, and I'll prove myself to both you _and_ Motoko."

Unbeknownst to Seno, but fully apparent to Tsuruko, the trio from Hinata had been watching the entire sequence of events, all of them shocked by Seno's sheer swordsmanship ability. They all knew that he was exceptional with the blade, but none of them had ever seen him in a knock-down, drag-out fight like this one before.

While Naru and Keitaro watched with simple awe, Motoko noted the blood staining his left side, and felt tears welling in her eyes. _Injured as he is, he still gives his all to fight for me,_ she thought. Reaching out a hand imploringly, she fought to contain her tears. _Seno, you don't need to do this for me! You've proven yourself to me for a thousand lifetimes. Please…don't hurt yourself over me._

"That is starting to look like a very serious injury," Tsuruko said, her mannerisms oozing concern. "We should probably stop, and get that looked at."

Seno smirked, recognizing that this was still playing out like the game duel he'd mentioned earlier. So, as he was wont to do whenever he recognized such an occasion, he did what he did best: He stole a line. "It's nothing. If you'll pardon the cliché, it's just a scratch."

Tsuruko sighed at his stubbornness. "Just like Motoko," she muttered. "Very well, then. There's no point in prolonging this anymore." Flourishing her sword before her, she slid backwards into a stance, her left side toward him, her sword held with the blade toward the sky on her right, and her left hand palm-out toward him. "It's time we finished this, once and for all."

Wordlessly, Seno raised the Shinaijou in his right hand, the tip of the blade pointed unerringly at Tsuruko's head. He shifted his left side to face toward her, drawing his right arm back but keeping the blade on target. Resting his weight evenly between both feet, he raised his left arm and held his hand out as though gently cupping a softball in his hand.

From their hiding place, Naru couldn't help but quietly mutter, "He'll still fight her, maimed like that?"

Keitaro gave her a sideward glance. "That's how Seno is," he told her. "He never gives up once he's decided to do something."

Despite the grave situation they were watching, Naru smiled and bumped her shoulder into Keitaro's. "Just like you."

"I admire your dedication," Tsuruko said. "Though, in this case, it may prove to be futile."

"You never know," he replied smoothly, "until you try. _Sister_."

"We will see," she said, smiling wickedly at him through her demon eyes.

Suddenly, a swirling, spherical orb of ki energy formed before Tsuruko's hand, roiling and swirling as it built in strength. The ball glowed an icy, light blue color, powered by the cold determination of Tsuruko in testing Seno's worth to be Motoko's husband.

Across the field, a ki orb likewise formed in Seno's palm. His orb was a brilliant, fiery red, burning with the passionate love for Motoko that consumed his entire being and dictated his every action.

Smirking, Tsuruko launched her ki orb at Seno with a backwash of energy, watching it grow larger and larger as it crossed the distance toward him. His own ki orb rocketed out of his palm, closing toward Tsuruko at a faster rate of speed than hers approached him. His also grew in proportion to the distance it traveled.

If the three onlookers had been expecting the two orbs to meet in between the two combatants and explode violently against one another, they would have been sadly disappointed. The two orbs bypassed each other harmlessly, locked without error on the opposing fighters.

And then suddenly, both orbs exploded simultaneously, releasing a tremendous amount of ki energy that would have flattened the three onlookers if they hadn't already been lying prone. A blinding flash of light blanketed the battleground, and the pained screams of both combatants were clearly heard.

When the light died down enough for Motoko to see again, she lowered her hands and looked out at her sister and boyfriend. Both were standing fully upright, swaying slightly in place, but otherwise looked none the worse for wear for the devastating attack that had exploded on both of them.

And then, to her horror, Seno collapsed, falling from upright to prone in one single movement with a dull thud as the Shinaijou embedded itself in the ground beside him.

Her eyes widening in terror, Motoko raised her hands to her mouth to better hold in the sobs she knew were coming. _No… God, please no, not again. I can't stand to lose him again, not after just getting him back. Please, Seno, get up. Get up, please…_ "SENO!" she screamed, leaping up and running out toward her fallen boyfriend as fast as her legs would carry her.

Breathing heavily, Tsuruko glanced from Seno lying on the ground before her, badly injured, likely unconscious, to Motoko running full-out toward him, panic written all across her face, tears streaming from her eyes. Closing her eyes, Tsuruko tightened her grip on her sword and walked toward the fallen swordsman. _Motoko, please forgive me for this, but before I let this man marry you, I must know the full extent of your devotion to him._

Raising her sword high above her head, Tsuruko stood over Seno and called out in a voice loud enough for even Naru and Keitaro to clearly hear, "If you are incapable of defeating me, then you are wholly unfit to be with my sister. So I must remove you from this existence."

And her sword came down, the tip of the blade aiming for the base of his neck.

"NO!" she heard Motoko scream, her voice raw with emotion, and then her blade stopped its downward descent.

Furrowing her brow, Tsuruko looked at her sword to see what was holding it back, and found a length of gold chain wrapped around it. Following the length of chain with her eyes, she traced it all the way back to Motoko's hands, with the pirate medallion resting against her knuckles. A fierce determination shone in Motoko's eyes, burning even through the tears she was still crying.

"You will not hurt him again, sister," she hissed.

Surprised once again by Motoko calling her anything but 'aneue,' Tsuruko tugged backwards on her sword, breaking free of the chain holding it back. "Motoko, did you know that he came here to ask my permission to marry you?" she asked. Before her younger sister could reply or even react, the elder woman continued, "You interfered in my testing him, so I am afraid that, win or lose, I cannot give that permission. You are forbidden to ever marry this man."

Tsuruko's softly spoken words were a wrecking ball wrapped in velvet, shattering Motoko's glass dreams of spending her life with Seno, of starting a family with him. The weight of that oppressive condemnation crashed down on her heart, threatening to crush it entirely as she felt fresh tears rising up.

But then something else crashed against the weight of Tsuruko's pronouncement. The pain that she had gone through the past several days, her rape, Seno's death, and the dream in which she thought she would never be able to hold it again. And then that pain was joined by the pain caused the last time that her sister had interfered in her life. Tsuruko had attempted to strip her of the sword, her only passion until recently. She had then turned around and attempted to force her to marry Keitaro. It was too much. It was all too damned much.

Everyone has a limit. Every person has a certain breaking point after which they will not take any more bullshit.

For Motoko Aoyama, being forbidden to spend her life with the man she loved was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Tsuruko had to forcibly restrain herself from smiling as she felt Motoko's ki surge powerfully within her form, rising to the challenge that had been placed before her spirit. _Good, Motoko,_ she thought. _This is how I wanted you to react._

By now, Motoko's ki was surging off of her in visible waves, sparking a powerful wind to blow through the courtyard, billowing her hair off to one side. Even Seno was being roused by this display of energy, and looked up to see Motoko standing over him, her fists clenched tightly, a mixed expression of outrage and determination on her beautiful face.

She also noticed his return to consciousness, and smiled as a plan formed in her head. Reaching back her right hand, she tightly grasped Shinaijou and ripped Seno's blade out of the ground. The natural ki of the enchanted weapon joined with Motoko's, sensing that she was fighting for the sword's namesake, love and truth.

"Seno, listen up," she said, stepping between her boyfriend and her sister. "I love you with every fiber of my being, and I would die without you. If you would allow me to, I would spend the rest of my life by your side, loving you until the end of time. And if aneue won't allow us to marry, then I would give up my family to marry you!"

By the time Tsuruko realized what Motoko was doing, it was already too late. The Shinaijou in Motoko's right hand burst with the brilliant heavenly light of love, blinding everyone within sight of it. Everyone except Motoko. Drawing Seno's sword back on her right side, she clenched it in both hands and struck out with the sword, empowered by her love for Seno, by his love for her, and by the full power of love contained within the sword she wielded.

A massive wave of ki energy, the largest ki attack she had ever channeled, rose from the blade and rocketed toward Tsuruko. Sensing the massive attack incoming, though completely unable to see it, the elder Aoyama raised her blade in front of her in a desperation attempt to defend herself.

She never had a chance.

"_AOYAMA KOKUHAKUKEN_!"

When the light from the blast finally died down enough for Keitaro and Naru's vision to clear, they saw Motoko standing in the center of the courtyard, leaning slightly forward, the Shinaijou held in a reverse grip in her left hand. Seno was still laying on the ground where he had been, though he was up on his right forearm and left hand and staring in awe up at Motoko.

Tsuruko was over a hundred feet back from where she had been standing, smashed against the side of a building. There were fragments of steel lying scattered between where she had been and where she was currently resting, and it took Keitaro noticing the bladeless hilt she held in her right hand to realize that the steel fragments were the remains of her sword, completely destroyed by the raw power of Motoko's strike.

"Holy shit," Naru uttered, staring wide-eyed at the scene before her.

Keitaro agreed. There simply wasn't any other way to put it.

Shakily, Tsuruko got to her feet and looked back on the flight path she had been sent on, then looked at the remains of her sword in her right hand. The bells tied to the hilt jingled lightly in the breeze. She managed to smile, even though every conceivable part of her body hurt.

"You continue to surprise me, little sister," she whispered to herself. "The Aoyama Confession Blade was just something I made up when you were little, to try and teach you to never lie, most of all to yourself. But here you go and turn it into an actual technique." She looked over at Motoko, who was already kneeling beside Seno, trying to tend to his injuries. "Motoko, you've discovered the true key to being a more powerful swordswoman than me, even if you don't know it yet. You must fight with your heart, and only draw your blade to defend those who you love."

Across the field, Motoko had gotten Seno to lay on his back, his head in her lap, as she pulled away his shirt and inspected the wound. It wasn't as deep or serious as all the blood suggested it was, and it hadn't come anywhere near any of his organs. It had just happened to cut into a number of minor blood vessels, which was causing all the bleeding. Even now, the blood was well along with clotting up.

Staring up at her lovely face, Seno couldn't stop himself from asking, "Motoko, did you mean that? If Tsuruko won't allow us to be married, would you really give up your family to marry me?"

She smiled down at him as she held her hands against the wound to assist in stopping the blood flow. "Of course I did," she replied. "That technique I used was the Aoyama Confession Blade that aneue told me about when I was a little girl. It wouldn't have worked if I was lying, and Shinaijou certainly wouldn't have loaned me its power."

For the first time since she had known him, Seno didn't have something witty to say, or a quote to steal from somewhere. He didn't even have any statements of reassurance to offer her. But for some reason, the quiet moment of love between them comforted her more than any words would have.

"Ho, ho, ho, that won't be necessary, little sister," Tsuruko's voice said.

Motoko looked back over her shoulder at her sister's battered form. Before, when she'd used the Confession Blade, she'd been angry at Tsuruko for daring to deny her from marrying Seno, but now that she had calmed down, she felt guilty for having hurt her older sister. "A-aneue, I…"

Smiling, Tsuruko shook her head and waved her left hand. "I am fine, Motoko. By its very nature, the Confession Blade is not a technique that can kill someone. And you need not worry yourself about Seno." She turned to the swordsman. "You have my blessings to marry Motoko."

The younger Aoyama's jaw dropped. "But… you said…"

"Mmm, how else was I going to test your devotion to him?" she asked. "Understand, Motoko, that you will be spending the rest of your life with him. I wanted to make sure that you would allow nothing to stand between him and you. Even family. So I had to put on that little ruse. I never intended to kill him, and I never intended to truly forbid you from marrying him."

"I… I…" Motoko stammered, unable to produce even a coherent thought, let alone an entire sentence. She slowly realized that her face was reddening, more at the knowledge that she was completely free to marry Seno than her inability to articulate speech.

On impulse, she looked back down at Seno, who was just as red as she was. Almost immediately, she smiled. Seno was hardly ever embarrassed by anything, and she found the sight of him blushing to be adorable. She had to resist the urge to cuddle him.

His right hand reached up, and he gently tangled his fingers in her hair. He smiled that warm, loving smile at her and slowly pulled her down toward him. "Motoko?"

Her heart hammered in her chest. She knew what he was about to ask. "Y-yes…?" she breathed, her voice catching in her throat.

"Will you? Marry me?"

For that moment, her heart stopped, and she couldn't breathe. But then she closed her eyes, feeling a single tear break free from the corner of her left eye and trail down her face. She smiled. The world was absolutely perfect. "Yes," she answered, and then kissed him before he could even think of kissing her.


	8. Drinks All Around

_"It felt right, deep inside, when I informed the others that my name had changed. That one little gesture, a bit of ink on paper, and my life had taken on an entirely different meaning."  
_- Motoko Nakakami; 'Heavenly Sword, Revised Edition'

**Chapter VII:  
Drinks All Around!**

_July 28, 2006  
Shinmeiryu Dojo, Kyoto, Japan  
1226 hours, local time_

Half an hour had passed since the end of the duel against Tsuruko and Motoko's subsequent acceptance of Seno's proposal. Currently, Tsuruko, Naru, and Keitaro were eating lunch, the elder Aoyama treating the Tokyo University couple like the honored guests they were. Neither Motoko nor Seno were present at the dinner table.

Seno winced as he felt coarse fabric brushing over the sword injury that he had been dealt early in the battle. His body jerked slightly, just barely sloshing the water in Tsuruko's hot spring bath. He quickly regained control of himself and returned to laying with his chest against the side of the bath, his arms resting on the platform that contained the bath, and his head resting on his arms.

"Did I hurt you?" Motoko asked, pulling away the washcloth she'd been using to clean the blood away.

He shook his head abortively, incapable of fully performing the action due to the placement of his head. "It's just a little sensitive," he answered. "It's okay."

Smiling, she leaned back down and continued to scrub away the dried blood, being as gentle as she possibly could. "I'll try to be more gentle," she said. "I've almost got it all, anyway."

Nodding, he let his eyes slip shut and laid his head back on his arms, a sensation of sleepy, contented warmth filling his body at her soft ministrations. "Mmm, you're good at this," he sighed. "You might put me to sleep if you're not careful."

As she carefully scrubbed away the last spot of blood, she leaned forward and kissed his shoulder. "One of your secret weaknesses?" she asked. "Getting your side washed in a hot spring by a girl?"

"Not just any girl," he murmured. "The girl of my dreams. The love of my life."

"Your soon-to-be wife?" she suggested.

"Naturally."

Taking the washcloth in both hands, she dipped it into the water to soak it, then brought it up and laid it on his left shoulder, beginning the process of washing his back in a slow, gentle manner. He sighed in contentment again, and she knew he was drifting ever closer to falling asleep. So in order to keep him awake, she asked, "Any more weaknesses I should know about?"

"I should make you figure them out on your own," he murmured. "But since you're making me feel so good, I'll tell you. I've got quite a few. The big ones are playing with my hair, vacuum cleaners, and hair dryers."

She tilted her head to one side, not stopping the movement of her hands over his back. "Playing with your hair I can understand, but vacuum cleaners and hair dryers?"

"I don't get it either," he said. "But every time I hear a vacuum cleaner, and when I hear a hair dryer that I'm not actually using, I just feel very relaxed, and feel like curling up somewhere."

"It makes you feel calm and happy?"

He nodded. "Very much so."

She smiled and slid the washcloth up his spine, causing him to shiver. "I'll remember that," she said. Twisting the cloth in her hands, she squeezed the soap out of it, then dunked it underwater again and began to wash the soap off his back. "The more ways I know to make you happy, the better."

"You don't need to go out of your way to make me happy," he replied. "All you need to do is be with me."

A few moments passed between them in comfortable silence as she washed away the last of the soap from his back. Setting the washcloth aside, she slid closer to him and laid on his back, resting her head between his shoulders as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "That is something I will do regardless," she whispered. "Therefore it is not enough."

In what little part of his conscious mind remained unfogged by the warm, comfortable bliss that had taken hold of him, he noticed very acutely that she was form-pressed against him. It went without even having to consider that they were both very much naked.

And yet, another part of his mind reminded him, truthfully, that there was nothing wrong with the way she was laying against them, or the fact that they were bathing together. They were engaged, after all, and if Tsuruko had any say in it, they'd be married before the day ended.

"Don't you want me to wash your back?" he asked.

"Later," she murmured, snuggling into him. "I don't want to move from here. I just want to stay lost in this moment. Forever."

He smirked, almost immediately recognizing where her words came from. "Armageddon," he said.

She lifted her head slightly, looking at him. "Pardon?"

"What you said," he replied. "'I just want to stay lost in this moment forever.' It's from the theme song of the movie Armageddon."

"You know it?"

"Most of it."

Laying her head down on his back, she closed her eyes and held him tightly. "How does it go?"

He was silent for a moment as he played the song through in his head, and then he began to softly sing it for her, singing in almost-perfect, non-accented English. "Lying close to you, feeling your heart beating. And I wonder what you're dreaming, wondering if it's me you're seeing. Then I kiss your eyes, and thank God we're together. I just want to stay with you, in this moment forever."

As he sang, the vibration of his voice singing an octave lower than his natural tone passed from his body and into hers, warming her entire body and gently pulling her along on the sleepy path she was already traveling. Within moments, she was resting fully on Seno's back, her arms loosening just slightly, indicating she had fallen asleep.

Noticing that she was sleeping, Seno opted to continue simply humming the song. He wanted to turn and hold her in his arms, but figured doing that would awaken her, and he was perfectly content to let her sleep on his back. It had been a trying couple of days for the two of them, and he would fight to give her any and all rest that he could give her.

So with peaceful thoughts of spending his entire life in her arms filling his mind, he too succumbed to the inviting bliss of slumber.

--

With a very pleased, borderline smug, smile on her face, Tsuruko silently slid the door to the bath shut and stood up, padding softly down the hallway toward the dining room. Naru and Keitaro both looked up at her with curious expressions. The elder Aoyama smiled at them.

"They fell asleep," she said. "He was singing a love song to her."

Naru smiled warmly. "That's so sweet. I'm glad that after everything, they're finally able to just relax and enjoy being a couple."

Tsuruko chuckled. "Ho, ho, ho, I think that they will be able to enjoy being a couple not as long as you think."

The brunette blinked. "What? Why not?"

"Because it will not be long until they are married," the master swordswoman answered matter-of-factly.

Keitaro and Naru both almost fell backwards off their chairs.

"Well, you've got a point there," Keitaro replied with a chuckle. "This is probably a stupid question, but are you going to come to the wedding?"

"Of course I will." She smiled. "After all, they're getting married right here."

"I sense you're leaving 'tonight' off the end of that sentence," Naru said.

"You're good."

She sighed. "Just like you, Tsuruko. Always doing things for other people without them having a say in it."

"You misunderstand me, Naru," Tsuruko replied, her tone serious. "I'm not forcing anything on them. I just believe that since he came all this way to ask for my permission, and she came all this way because she feared for his safety, that they should be rewarded for their dedication by allowing them to be married immediately, here. It would be a private little ceremony, just to make it official."

The elder Aoyama paused, and took a sip of tea. "They're perfectly free to have another, grander ceremony that all their friends can attend later, when they have time. I simply don't want them to leave here without what they came seeking: marriage."

"Makes sense," Keitaro said, nodding. "Crude, arbitrary, but it makes sense."

Setting her cup down, Tsuruko made her usual shift from deadly-serious to innocent and carefree in record time. "I'm glad you agree with me, Keitaro!" she said with a smile.

--

_1436 hours, local time_

The first thing that Seno noticed upon returning to consciousness was the lack of comfortably-steaming water surrounding him. In its place was the soft, comfortable warmth of a king-sized bed. The envelope of heat surrounding his body indicated that he was up to his chest in the covers, which felt as if they were an extremely-soft fabric, likely made from something that he couldn't even identify the name of.

He next noticed that Motoko was asleep on his left side, her head pillowed on his chest, and her left arm draped over his stomach, holding him securely like an oversized plush bear. His own arm was wrapped around her shoulders. Smiling, he gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and simply watched her sleep.

Lying there, with her hair spread out around her face like a curtain of black silk, she looked so innocent and helpless, and an overwhelming urge rose within him to protect her. Shifting his left hand from her shoulder, he gently ran it through the soft, raven-colored strands. The feel of her hair made the comparison to silk even more apt.

"You two look very peaceful," Tsuruko's voice called out from the far corner of the room. "It's a sign of how much you love each other, that you are so comfortable with sleeping in each others' arms."

Seno looked over to see his future sister-in-law seated in a chair across from the door, a smile on her face as she watched the two of them. "I thought we fell asleep in the hot springs," he said.

She nodded. "You did. But spending too much time in a hot spring can make you sick, so I brought the two of you here to the guest bedroom in my home."

"Thanks for keeping an eye out for us. I guess it was kind of irresponsible of me to fall asleep in the hot springs like that, since I had Motoko with me."

The elder Aoyama tilted her head to the side. "You suggest that it would be acceptable for you to come down with a sickness as long as Motoko does not?"

He shrugged slightly, being cautious not to disturb his still-sleeping fiancée. "I'm more concerned with her health than mine, is all," he replied neutrally.

"I see." Tsuruko picked up a cup of tea, seemingly out of nowhere, and sipped it. "In marriage, however, you and Motoko will be equals. Therefore, your health and well-being is just as important as hers. You should also look out for yourself, if for no other reason than a high state of health on your part will make Motoko happy."

"You get off on being right all the time, don't you?"

"I don't 'get off' as you are familiar with the more base American line of thought behind that saying, but I do enjoy it, yes."

At that point, Motoko took in a deep breath and stretched in place, a sign that she was waking up. Surely enough, her dark-colored eyes snapped open a second later, having recognized the fact that she was no longer where she had fallen asleep, and that she was unsure of who was holding her in their arms. Her eyes fell on Seno's face and she immediately relaxed, smiling sleepily as she laid her head back on his chest.

"How long was I asleep?" she asked, tracing her left index finger along his stomach.

"I don't know. I only woke up a short while ago, myself." He nodded in Tsuruko's direction. "Tsuruko took us out of the bath and brought us in here."

The elder swordswoman smiled. "Now that you're both awake, we can talk about your wedding," she said. "How does tonight sound?"

As expected, the faces of the betrothed couple were a study in absolute shock. "T-tonight?" Motoko uttered. "But what about…we're not ready…we don't have any–"

Holding up a hand to calm her younger sister, Tsuruko explained herself, "It would only be a simple, private ceremony just to make the marriage official. No need for anything fancy for now. Just a simple exchange of vows in front of family, myself, and witnesses, your friends Keitaro and Naru. If you so desire, you can hold a larger gathering for all the rest of your friends when you're more suitably prepared for it."

Motoko was still skeptical, but Seno nodded agreeably. "Kind of like in _Independence Day_ when Will Smith got married to that one girl, damn if I can't remember her name, right before going off to make the alien mother ship all 'splodey."

Tsuruko simply nodded as if she had any idea what he was talking about. She didn't. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but the analogy is apt, if random and crude."

"Why do you want us to be married so soon, aneue?" Motoko asked.

Her sister smiled. "It's what the two of you came here seeking," she said, as though the answer were self-evident. "Seno came seeking my permission to marry you. Even though you didn't know he was here for _that_ particular reason, you still feared for his safety and came to stand by him, as any wife should. Since the two of you came so far to seek marriage, I feel it would be improper for you to leave without it."

The younger Aoyama would've hit the floor if she wasn't already laying down. "Only you could make such leaps of logic, aneue…"

"Mmm, but they sound good, don't they?"

The swordsman looked away from Tsuruko, calmly watching his fiancée. "Motoko? Is it okay with you?"

She looked to him, and for a moment, it was silent as she stared into his eyes. Then she smiled, snaked her left hand across his stomach to find his right hand and take it in hers, lacing their fingers together. "Of course it is," she replied. "As long as it is with you."

He nodded to her. "It is."

Smiling widely, Tsuruko stood up from her chair and approached the door. "Well, then," she said. "Come and get me when you are ready. Like I said, you needn't concern yourself with fancy outfits or any ornamentation. I'll see you two shortly, then."

With that, she walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

The couple laid together in the bed in silence for a long while, content with basking in one another's warmth. He returned to gently stroking her hair, in response to which she sighed happily and snuggled up closer to him. A smile crossed his face as he thought of how much she had changed since he had known her; from the lonely, rigidly-in-control girl she had been when he first showed up at the Hinata, to the content, emotionally-rich woman he held in his arms. She had grown up a lot since that time, in no small part due to his own influences, though one would be hard-pressed to get him to acknowledge he was that big an influence on her.

"What are you smiling about?" she asked, drawing him out of his musings.

"Thinking about how much we've changed since we've known each other," he replied. "I remember how you used to be when I showed up at the Hinata. You were always in control of yourself, and you were violent, too. Well, you're still violent, but you know when to act and when not to."

She smiled. "Getting beat by you so much taught me that," she said.

"It wasn't so much that I beat you all the time," he replied. At her questioning look, he explained, "Yes, I know I've beaten you almost every time we've sparred, but that's not what I'm talking about. That didn't teach you discretion. It was all the times that I intercepted or blocked your attacks on Keitaro and made you think about why you were trying to attack him."

"Calling me on Bushido helped, too."

"Noticed that, did you?" he asked, grinning. "Anyway, there was one thing I noticed about you on top of having control to the point of it being painful, and being violent."

He paused, and she knew he was waiting for her to ask what he meant. He always did that; it was just another of his little quirks. "What's that?"

"You were lonely," he said simply, then gave her a one-armed squeeze, as though trying to prove to her that she was no longer alone.

As if she needed to be reminded.

"Though you were in so much control of yourself all the time," he continued, "there would be times when you'd let your defenses down, your mask would slip away, and I could see that you were sad and alone inside. That you wanted to be held, to be loved, but you were afraid that it would make you weak."

She went very still as she likewise thought back to those days. There were many, many days that she would cry herself to sleep at night, lamenting for a love she wished she could have, but felt would be detrimental to her. Most of her anguish had been caused by the knowledge that she _did_ have strong feelings for Keitaro, but his heart belonged to Naru.

But thanks to Seno, she had come to realize that her feelings for Keitaro were little more than the girlhood crush that every girl experiences before she even knows the true meaning of love. Seno had shown her the meaning of love.

"Sometimes," she whispered, "I still think that love will weaken me. But even if it does, I don't care."

He smirked. "Motoko, before we fell in love, how many times did you beat your sister?"

"Never."

"And since?"

"Today."

"You see? Love has _strengthened_ you, not weakened you." Smiling, he leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

She nodded and rested her head in the crook of his arm. "Lying here like this, with you, I think I finally understand why aneue gave up the sword to marry. Like me, the sword was her passion in life, her love. But after meeting her husband, she realized all the things the sword cannot do. It cannot comfort me when I am sad, it cannot warm me on a cold night, and it cannot love me as you can. I will not give up the sword, but it will no longer be the sole driving factor in my life. Our love, our future, whatever that may bring, will be what guides me."

All he could do after she finished that monologue was stare, dumbfounded, at her. He knew full well that she was very intelligent, and had more than her share of common sense, but what she had said would've given appreciative pause to such persons as Shakespeare or Hemingway. Just as he was about to comment that she should consider writing romance novels full-time, she spoke again.

"But there was something I wanted to ask you, when we got carried away talking about everything."

"What's that?"

"I looked through a couple of your Star Wars books and magazines, and a lot of them held mention to these people known as the Mandalorians," she said. "You're a fan of these Mandalorians?"

He smirked. "I've jokingly called myself a 'Mando-ronin' occasionally," he replied. "But yes, I am very much interested in their culture and language."

She nodded. "I… hm. I wonder. Do they… Do Mandalorians marry?"

--

The group gathered at the Shinto shrine behind Tsuruko's home shortly before nightfall. Tsuruko knelt on a cushion beside the shrine while Naru and Keitaro stood together a short distance away, hand-in-hand. Motoko and Seno knelt in front of the shrine, their eyes closed in a meditative state. Three incense candles burned on the shrine.

After several minutes of silence, the couple opened their eyes almost simultaneously and looked up. Tsuruko, smiling, handed them both a sake glass. They each took a glass, then bowed toward the shrine before drinking the contents of the glass at the same time.

Without a word spoken, both reached forward to take hold of the jug that the sake was held in, and refilled their glasses; hers first, and then his. Then they extended their arms to each other and drank from one another's glasses, again, at the same time. With that completed, they leaned forward and set the empty glasses on the shrine.

Tsuruko opened her mouth to speak, but Motoko held up her hand. "Wait please, aneue," she said.

The elder Aoyama shut her mouth, curious about this deviation from the normal tradition, and tilted her head to one side, smiling faintly.

"We sort of came up with our own little idea to finish this off," Seno explained. "See, Motoko got into some of my Star Wars magazines back home and learned a little about the Mandalorians, who have their own culture and everything. I told her about their wedding ceremonies, and she suggested that we conclude our own by reciting the Mandalorian vows."

Her smile widening, Tsuruko nodded.

Motoko and Seno turned in toward each other, and linked both their hands together. Together, they both began to speak in a language that only Seno came close to truly understanding: "_Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome. Mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde_." It was over as simply as that, and they leaned inward to seal their marriage with a kiss.

Keitaro leaned over to Naru and whispered, "What did they say?"

She only shrugged in reply.

Tsuruko looked across to them and calmly answered, "They swore that they would be one when together and apart, that they would share all, and I didn't get the last part."

Leaning back from Motoko, Seno blinked at his new sister-in-law and said, "The…last part is a promise to raise warriors. But how did you know the rest of it?"

She smiled. "I didn't. But I figured that such concepts would be universal." She turned her attention to her sister. "Now, Motoko, don't be stubborn as I was."

Motoko blinked. "Aneue?"

"I was adamant about keeping my maiden name," Tsuruko explained. "When I first married, I was headstrong and convinced that because my swordsmanship was better than my husband's, that I should keep my family name. Whether you keep Aoyama or take Seno's name, it is something that you should only base on what you feel in your heart." She winked at her sister. "Besides, nowhere in our family traditions does it state that the heir of the Shinmeiryu must be unmarried _or_ still have Aoyama as their surname."

For once, the only reaction Motoko made to her sister's meddling attempts was a smile. "I already made up my mind," she said, then looked into her husband's brilliant green eyes. "I am taking his name."

Almost as if on-cue, Tsuruko's serious demeanor shot out the window. "Hmm, something's missing," she mused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. After a moment, she snapped her fingers. "I know! You have no rings."

Chuckling nervously, Seno would have scratched the back of his head if he wasn't still holding Motoko's hands. "Well, we didn't exactly have time to go ring-shopping," he said.

"That's true," the older swordswoman replied. "You can go do that tomorrow. For now, I have an idea." She reached into her ceremonial kimono, clearly looking for something. After a few moments of searching, she produced a length of red, rope-like silk about a foot long. This seemingly-random spawning floored both couples.

"The hell…" Seno muttered. "You got a bag of holding in there?"

Tsuruko closed one eye in a wink. "Where do you think the shrine came from?"

Bam. Both couples, floored again.

Without warning or preamble, Tsuruko leaned forward and tied one end of the silk cloth to Motoko's right wrist, and the other end to Seno's left. She then leaned back and smiled at the couple. "I read about this a short while ago. It's apparently become all the rage recently in America. It's called a hand-fastening, and it seems to be a replacement for couples who don't want to have a standard Westernized wedding. For you two, it will suffice until you get rings."

She stood up suddenly, and glanced toward the setting sun. "Well. It's getting late. It would be rude of me to send you all home at this time of night, so I'll prepare another guest room for Keitaro and Naru, and Motoko and Seno, you two can stay in the room you were in before."

All four of them immediately caught on to Tsuruko's hidden meaning. "Aneue!" Motoko cried, her face burning red.

Her sister grinned. "You have nothing to be nervous or shy about, Motoko," she said. "You _are_ married now."

With that, she retreated inside the house. Keitaro and Naru quickly followed, leaving the two newlyweds standing outside, half in shock over what Tsuruko had planned. Laying his free hand on Motoko's shoulder, he smiled at her reassuringly.

"We don't have to do this now," he said. "We can wait until later, when you're ready."

She shook her head slowly. "No, I am certain I'm ready now," she replied. "I just…" Her blush deepened.

Stepping forward, he hugged her as best he could without hurting her arm that was bound to his, and kissed her softly. "What's wrong?" he asked. "What is it?"

"I… I don't want to disappoint you," she whispered. "I want to be good enough."

He smiled and slowly began to lead her inside. "Motoko, 'good enough' doesn't do you justice," he told her, love and honesty flowing through every word. "You'll be fine."

--

_July 29, 2006  
Shinmeiryu Dojo, Kyoto, Japan  
0703 hours, local time_

Seno awoke the next morning to feel fingers gently stroking his head, and a voice humming softly in his ear. He turned his head slightly to the left, to see exactly what he had expected to see: Motoko lying beside him, a smile on her face, as she ran her fingers through his hair. Her smiled widened slightly as she noticed he was awake, but she kept up her ministrations, remembering how he had told her yesterday how he enjoyed just what she was doing to him.

"Good morning," she whispered to him, bringing her other hand, the one still bound to his own, around to lace her fingers through his.

With warm shivers running through him at every touch of her fingers on his head, he looked at her through half-lidded eyes and smiled. "Good morning," he replied. "You seem very happy this morning."

She grinned. "Of course. _You_ made me this way."

Knowing exactly to what she was referring, he felt his smile begin to shift into a smirk. "Oh? And what, exactly, did I do to cause you to all but glow this morning?"

Shifting closer to him, she wrapped her left arm around his chest and held onto him like an oversized teddy bear, laying her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. "Last night," she replied dreamily. "I felt more alive, more complete, than I've ever felt before in my entire life. And it was all because of you."

He shook his head slowly. "It wasn't just me," he replied. "It was both of us."

"Mmm," she murmured. "Last night was… perfect. It was love, and compassion, and tenderness, and everything we've felt for each other, magnified a thousand times." She took a deep breath and sighed happily. "It was everything I had imagined, and more. Thank you, Seno, for allowing me to experience that with you."

He kissed the top of her head. "You're welcome, Motoko," he said. "I'm glad that I made it so enjoyable for you."

"'Enjoyable' is not a strong enough word, my dear husband," she replied. "I don't think that a strong enough word exists."

"Truly a shame." Without the option of putting his left arm around her, due to the restraining length of the silk cloth binding them, he gently stroked her left arm with his right hand. "We should get up soon. I think I smell food cooking."

She chuckled. "Seno, I don't think my legs work right now," she said.

He was silent for a moment. "Hm. Neither do mine. We… really wore each other out, didn't we?"

"It was worth it," she answered simply.

--

An hour later, the newlywed couple made their way into Tsuruko's dining room, freshly bathed and dressed. They had quickly discovered that getting arms through sleeves was impossible with their wrists bound together, and had been forced to shortly undo one end of the binding so that they could dress themselves.

As soon as they entered, Tsuruko looked up from the table and gave them an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry," she told them. "I forgot yesterday that it wouldn't be possible for the two of you to dress while bound together."

"We found that out," Seno replied, smiling ruefully. "We had to take it off long enough for us to get dressed."

As Naru and Keitaro came out of the kitchen, both carrying a tray filled with breakfast entrees, Tsuruko asked, "So, are all of you going back to Hinata today?"

"Much later on," Seno replied, nodding his thanks to Naru as she handed him a plate of food. "Motoko and I had planned on seeing about finding a jeweler today, so we could go ring-shopping."

"Oh, then you should go to the mall near the university," Tsuruko said. "They have quite a few jewelry stores, so you would have a wide selection to choose from."

The couple exchanged a glance, then nodded. "We'll do that, then," Motoko said. She glanced over at her husband. "After breakfast, then?"

He nodded as well. "After breakfast it is." Then, from around the side of the table, he produced a bottle of strawberry-flavored Yoo-hoo. He shook it up in his right hand, then attempted to twist the metal bottle cap off. After three failed attempts, he swore under his breath and used a napkin to help him remove the cap.

Motoko blinked. He hadn't gone to get the drink from the refrigerator, not that she thought Tsuruko would have such a drink anyway, and he hadn't brought it with him, so she was left to wonder where he got it. "Where…did that come from…?"

He looked toward her, smirked, and took a gulp of the drink. "Bag of holding," he replied simply, almost causing her to fall out of her seat. "No, Keitaro passed it to me under the table." He grimaced slightly. "It isn't all that great. The hell'd you get this from, man?"

"Naru and I found it when we were out shopping," his friend explained. "Since you like strawberries so much, I figured you'd like it."

To the swordsman's left, Motoko silently took note of another of her husband's favorite things. Seno, meanwhile, shrugged and continued drinking the pink liquid. "Well, it's not _terrible_," he said. "I mean, I can drink it. I don't care for it, though."

Tsuruko smiled as she watched the two couples interact. Without the other tenants of the Hinata, this was but a mere sampling of how everyday life at the apartments was like, but even still, Tsuruko knew that she was watching Fate unfold itself.

Over the past several months, she had had her doubts about pronouncing Motoko fit to inherit the Shinmeiryu after her younger sister had managed to destroy the demonic entity living within the Hina blade. At the time, it had appeared that Motoko had found her inner strength and drive to continue improving, but as the days passed, Tsuruko found herself doubting that. Several times, she had considered retroactively nullifying her decision, and forcing Motoko into that marriage with Keitaro.

But now, watching the pure, untarnished love that flowed between Naru and Keitaro, and Seno and Motoko, she knew that her decision to declare Motoko the winner of their little bout was the correct one. She also now knew that the source of inner strength her sister had displayed during their duel had stemmed from Seno, even though she wasn't aware that he was its source. Never was this more clear to her than when Motoko threw herself into a battle for the sake of her beloved, and had managed to not only best Tsuruko, but thoroughly trounce her _and_ destroy her sword, all in a single blow.

"Oh, that reminds me," she said softly.

All conversation at the table ceased as the two couples turned their attention to the elder Aoyama. "Aneue?" Motoko asked.

Tsuruko smiled at her sister. "I have a wedding present for you, Motoko," she said.

Motoko blinked confusedly at her sister, then felt a weight settle itself on her left shoulder. She looked over to find Shippu, Tsuruko's yellow crane, perched on her shoulder and looking down at her with what could be construed as an amused expression on its avian features.

"I'll entrust Shippu to you," she said, smiling. "Take care of him, now."

"But…why would you give Shippu to me?" Motoko asked. "You've had him since I was a little girl."

"I have always thought of Shippu as a sort of guardian spirit," Tsuruko replied. "He has always been by my side through all of the hardships I've had to face. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I can sense that you, too, will be faced with severe hardships in the near future. Though you will have Seno and your friends beside you, you can think of Shippu as an extension of my spirit, also staying with you." She set her cup down and looked off to the side, tapping her chin with a finger. As usual, this was a sign of her demeanor shifting from serious to whimsical. "I understand why you look up to me as much as you do, but I still do not think that I deserve such praise, especially since you have the courage and strength to devote yourself equally to your husband and the sword, whereas I could only devote myself to one or the other."

Three of the Hinata tenants took on a confused look at Tsuruko's mention of future hardships, but Seno appeared contemplative. Motoko looked to her husband, and realization flashed in her eyes, before they darkened with anger. She knew what he was thinking about, what that 'hardship' doubtless was.

Then she forcibly pushed those thoughts away, and reached over to squeeze Seno's hand. When he looked over to her, she gave him a smile. "Come on," she said. "We've got plenty to do today."

--

_Kyoto University Mall, Kyoto, Japan  
0915 hours, local time_

Another hour later, Seno and Motoko stood in one of the many jewelry stores inside the Kyoto University Mall, a sprawling indoor shopping complex located within walking distance of the main campus of Kyoto University. It had everything from retro toy stores to clothing stores to game and music stores, and stores catering to the more 'rebellious' generation, such as Hot Topic and Spencer's. There was even a food court and a movie theater.

As the couple looked into the display cases, a saleswoman approached them. "Can I help you two find anything?" she asked, smiling sweetly.

"Maybe," Motoko replied, glancing at the woman. "We're looking for wedding rings."

"You're getting married?" the woman asked. "How wonderful! Congratulations!"

Seno chuckled. "Actually, we're already married," he said, raising his left arm and, by way of the silk cloth still binding their arms together, raising Motoko's as well. "It's a long story."

"I see," the saleswoman said. "So you're looking for a set of rings to make it a little more official, then? Well, let's start with a couple questions. What sort of rings are you looking for? Simple, elegant, extravagant?"

The couple looked to each other, and Seno nodded to Motoko, letting her take charge of the decision-making process. She smiled at him, then turned to the saleswoman. "I think that something simple, yet elegant would do nicely," she said.

Nodding, the saleswoman turned away and motioned for the couple to follow her. "I think I have a few items that will be just what you're looking for," she said. "Judging by the way you two carry yourselves, I wager that you are both practicing swordplayers."

Once again, the couple exchanged a glance, this one surprised. "She's good," Seno said. "Not many people have been able to pick out that I'm a swordsman unless I'm carrying Shinaijou with me."

Motoko smirked. "That's because you dress and act like a beach bum."

He grinned. "Naturally. It's the only reason why I dress like I do." He paused. "Aside from the unparalleled level of comfort my choice of outfit offers."

As they talked, the saleswoman walked behind one of the display counters and opened it up, taking out a pair of rings. They were simple rings, nothing more than two bands to be worn around the finger, with no jewels of any kind attached to them. Their coloration suggested that, despite the silvery sheen, they were not made of silver. "Here we go," she said. "These are made of 18 karat white gold, and I think they'll suit the two of you perfectly. Would you like to try them on?"

"Yes, please," Motoko replied with a smile, holding out her hand. The saleswoman handed one of the rings to her, and the other to Seno. Motoko slipped the ring onto the third finger of her left hand and then stared down at it, occasionally turning her hand over. Despite the fact that it was several sizes too large for her, she still liked the way it looked on her hand. She turned and held her hand out toward Seno. "What do you think?"

He reached over and gently took hold of her hand, tilting his head to the side as he looked at the ring. Then he looked up into her eyes and smiled. "Perfect," he said. "Not as beautiful as you, though."

She flushed. "Flatterer. Put yours on!"

"Already did," he replied, smirking, as he held up his left hand, palm toward himself, and showed her the ring hanging loosely around his finger. "Too big for me, too."

The saleswoman smiled. "Do you like them?"

Seno looked over to his wife, who was once more staring down at the ring she wore. He smiled. "We'll take 'em," he said.

"Excellent!" She produced a piece of plastic with nearly two dozen holes of varying sizes, that Seno recognized as a device used to measure the size of one's finger for a ring fitting. "Now if you'll just give me your ring fingers, I'll get your measurements so we can fit these rings for you."

After a few moments, the saleswoman had gotten the measurements of their fingers, and the couple had given back the display rings. The saleswoman then printed them up a claim check and told them it would take about three hours for the rings to be finished.

As she turned to walk away, Motoko suddenly stopped and called out, "Oh, I forgot! I'm sorry if this is troublesome, but I would like to have Seno's name engraved on my ring."

The swordsman blinked and grinned sheepishly. "Heh, I didn't even think about that," he said. "If it's not too much trouble, could you also put her name on my ring? As well as the date of our marriage, July 28, 2006."

Smiling warmly, the saleswoman made a note on her copy of the claim ticket. "It isn't any trouble," she said. "That's a standard request for this type of ring anyway. So, Mister Nakakami, we have your cell phone number, and we'll call you when your rings are ready."

"Alright, see you in a few hours then," Seno replied, waving jauntily before slipping an arm around Motoko's waist and leading her out of the store. "So we've got a couple hours to kill. Any ideas?"

"A few, but none that could get rid of two or three hours," she replied. "Want to just look around?"

He smirked. "Sounds good." Looking around, his eyes fell on one of his favorite stores. "Hey, they've got EB Games. I think I've still got a discount card that's good there."

"Then what are we waiting for?" she asked, smiling. "You love your games almost as much as you do me."

"Quite true, quite true," he replied, leading her into the game store.

Once inside, it became obvious that Motoko still had quite a bit to learn about the world of video gaming, as she simply followed Seno around, looking in wide-eyed amazement at the vast variety of video games and consoles to choose from. Seno, on the other hand, was like a fish in water as he angled directly toward the PC console section.

"Hey, check this out," he said, picking up a box labeled 'Battlefield 2142.' He tilted his head to the side, looking at it curiously.

"What is it?" Motoko asked, picking up another copy of it and turning the box over to read the back.

"It's apparently the next title in the Battlefield series," he replied. "It's a first-person shooter genre, kinda like Lucasarts' Star Wars Battlefront. I personally find Battlefield to be a lot more clumsy in terms of gameplay and control system, and lost interest in it once Battlefront was released." He paused. "Besides, I get to play as an ARC trooper in Battlefront. Instant win."

"So it's some sort of futuristic version, hm?" she said, turning the box over in her hands.

"I guess. But it stood out because it seems familiar to me, somehow…" He blinked. "Oh! Now I remember! I read a fanfiction a few weeks ago, that the main character came from this game. The basic plot was it was some kind of future war, and this soldier guy fell through some kind of temporal vortex and ended up in the Hinata in the modern day. It was a pretty awesome story. Dude even taught Tama-chan to salute."

The corner of her lip quirked up in a smirk. "The Hinata? We were all there?"

"Well, _I_ wasn't. Dunno why. Maybe the guy who wrote it thinks I'm too cool to be in his fic, or maybe he's jealous of me or something. No telling. Funny thing is, I've seen a whole lot of fics based on or around the Hinata. Sometimes I even confuse those fics with reality."

She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, then pulled him down to kiss him gently. "If you ever need a reality check after today, you just remember to look down at your hand," she said. "Then you'll know what's real and what isn't."

He grinned. "Mmm, if you're going to kiss me every time I have an identity crisis, perhaps I should have them more often."

"Don't push your luck," she replied, rolling her eyes.

He smiled in return, and they continued to wander the store, with him pointing out various games, and her subtly keeping an eye on which ones he showed more interest in than others. He paused at the wall display of Play Station Portables, and she took note that he seemed very interested in them, even while pretending to look through a display rack of assorted anime.

_I wanted to surprise him with a gift, but since we're still bound together, I can't really do anything without him knowing about it. Oh, well._

As he read the back of one of the PSP boxes, she reached out and pulled another one off the shelf, drawing his attention. "Eh? Oh, you want a PSP, Motoko?"

Grinning, she winked at him, then began walking toward the counter. "Yeah, but don't even think about buying it for me," she replied, pulling him along behind her.

"Find everything you were looking for?" the cashier asked as she put the PSP on the counter. He entered a few commands into the register, then turned back to her. "Do you have an EB Edge card?"

She started to shake her head, but Seno's arm snaked past her, holding out his discount card to the cashier. The man scanned the card, handed it back, then scanned the PSP. "Okay, with the ten percent off, that'll come out to ¥20653."

Motoko reached into her small handbag and produced a debit card, which she handed over to the cashier. He ran it through the scanner, handed the card back to her, then waited as the printer produced two receipts. One he placed in the bag with the PSP, and the other he set before her, along with a pen.

As she signed the receipt, she smiled faintly. "I'll have to remember to get all of my identification cards changed," she said, looking back at Seno. "My name's not Aoyama anymore, after all."

Her husband smirked as she handed the pen and receipt to the cashier, who then handed her the bag with the PSP in it. "Thanks, you two have a nice day," he said.

With a nod of thanks, the couple left the store. As soon as they were outside, Motoko held the bag out toward Seno. "Here," she said, smiling.

"Do wha…?" he muttered, taking the bag and blinking confusedly at his wife. "You…bought it for me?"

Smiling still, she looped her arm through his and started walking, with no destination in mind. "Of course. It's your wedding gift from me."

He grinned ruefully and leaned over to kiss her temple. "Now I feel bad," he said. "I'm going to find you something now."

She shook her head and leaned against him. "Don't even think about it, Seno," she replied. "Besides, just think of the rings as my wedding gift."

"That's not fair," he said, unable to do away with the smirk he was wearing. "You can't just turn around and tell me that the rings are your gift."

"I just did," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. "So what's next?"

"Humm, humm," he replied, looking around the section of the mall they were in. "Hey, an arcade!"

"Eh?"

"Come on!" he called, grinning, as he pulled her along behind him.

--

Over two hours later, the couple finally emerged from the arcade, soaked in sweat, breathing heavily, but both wearing smiles. They paused just outside the entrance, Seno leaning against a nearby wall as Motoko stood nearby, bent partially over with her hands on her knees.

"You…" she breathed, "…are never…getting me… in an arcade… ever again…"

Her husband grinned and laughed silently for a few moments, before clutching at his side. "Ow… Hurts to laugh…" he muttered. Still, he was grinning. "Okay… next time… I won't make you play DDR for a straight hour. I should've known better." He shook his head. "But it was just so fun playing it with you, even though I suck."

Her face was already flushed from the exertion of nonstop Dance Dance Revolution, and so her reaction to his statement was all but invisible. "I had fun, too," she said, smiling. "It was good exercise. Perhaps we should try to convince aneue to play?"

"_That_ would be worth any beating she dishes out," he replied with a laugh. "Though, watch her totally smoke the hardest song, on the hardest difficulty level."

She tilted her head to one side. "Do you really think she could?"

He shrugged. "My plans like to backfire like that."

As she paused to mull that over, thinking back to the various plans she'd seen him enact in the past, his cell phone began to ring. Moreover, it began to ring with a very distinctive, very familiar ringtone. "Is that… the Final Fantasy fanfare?"

He grinned as he produced the phone from his pocket and stared at the face, which displayed a number he didn't recognize. "Would you seriously expect anything less from me?" With a practice flick of his thumb, he flipped open the phone and raised it up to his head. "Strife Delivery Service."

She groaned and planted her forehead in her left palm. "I thought I'd be used to it by now…" she muttered.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, this is Seno. Right. Yeah. They're done? Awesome. We'll be right over." After the conclusion of that very brief conversation, the swordsman flipped the phone shut with his index finger and returned it to his pocket. "Well, they got our rings ready for us. Ready to go pick 'em up?"

"Of course," she replied with a smile, taking his left hand in her right and walking toward the jewelers'.

The couple proceeded directly to the counter upon entering, where the same saleswoman from before was waiting for them, with a ring box sitting on the counter before her. Smiling, the woman pulled open the lid of the box and slid it across to the couple. Both rings rested side-by-side on the inner lining of the box.

With his free hand, Seno grabbed the smaller of the two rings, Motoko's, and looked it over, turning it in his hand to look at the inner side of the band. As requested, his name was engraved into the band, along with the date of their wedding.

Anticipating his next move, Motoko smiled and held out her left hand. Smiling in return, he gently took hold of her hand and slipped the ring onto her ring finger. As he let go of her hand, she testingly flexed her fingers a few times, acclimating herself to the ring's presence.

Then she picked up his ring, taking just a moment to run her finger across her name engraved along the inner surface, before pulling up her right arm. The silk cloth binding his left arm to her right caused his own arm to come up as well, and she smiled as he obligingly pushed his finger through the ring she held out.

With that complete, she interlaced the fingers of both her hands with his, then stepped forward and leaned up to kiss him.

--

_July 29, 2006  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1702 hours, local time_

"We're home!" Keitaro called out, holding the front door open for Naru, Motoko, and Seno to pass through. The two ladies stepped inside with a nod and a word of thanks to the manager, but Seno reached up, grabbed the door himself, and nodded for Keitaro to precede him in.

Inside, Kitsune looked up from the couch as Shinobu peeked out from the kitchen. "Hey, welcome back!" Kitsune said. "The conquerin' heroes have returned!"

Shinobu stepped out of the kitchen and smiled at them, bowing forward partially. "Welcome back, guys," she said. "Did everything work out?"

"Yeah! What was the big idea, runnin' off to Kyoto like that and scarin' the life out of Motoko?" Kitsune asked Seno.

Motoko held up her right hand, and Kitsune obligingly let the swordsman off the hook. Temporarily. "Before we continue this interrogation, I think that it is fitting I should reintroduce myself."

At first, Kitsune's confused expression matched that of Shinobu, but then realization slowly dawned on the fox woman. "You didn't…"

The swordswoman gave her friend a wry smile and held up her left hand, palm in, to show them the ring she wore on her third finger. "I am Motoko Nakakami. Pleased to meet you. Again."


	9. Biggest Accomplishment and Runaway

_"Just when we'd thought everything was goin' in a new direction, ol' Keitaro had to pull another of his disappearing acts."  
_- Mitsune Konno; 'On a Wing and a Storm'

**Chapter VIII:  
Biggest Accomplishment and Runaway**

_August 15, 2006  
Auditorium C, Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan  
1205 hours, local time_

Silence filled the auditorium at Tokyo University, unbroken save for the flipping of pages and the scratching of pencils on paper. The entrance examination for the fall/winter term of Tokyo University had just begun.

As he skimmed over the first page of the exam, Keitaro felt a smile creep across his face. _Hey! I actually understand this! Yes! Four years of hard work are finally paying off!_

The third-year ronin paused to run some rough calculations in his head. _Let's see, if I score at least eight-five percent on today's test, then I'm in._ He flipped through the test booklet, scanning the material he would be tested on. _Hey, I can definitely get at least eighty percent on this blasted English exam._

With his grin continuing to widen, he realized that he was in danger of burning himself out again, as he'd done at the previous center exam. _Whoa, whoa, calm down there. Just take it one step at a time. Let's see, my center exam scores were… Yeah, no doubt. At the rate I'm going, then in a few weeks…_

His mind drifting into daydream mode, Keitaro watched in happiness as his most recent fantasy played out in his mind. It was a few weeks after the exam, and the results had been posted. All of the residents of the Hinata, from Seno to Shinobu, were crowded around him, waiting with bated breath, as he scanned over the acceptance board.

And there it was!

"You're on the list, man!" Seno called.

"You made it!" Kitsune added.

Stepping up beside the kanrinin, Seno suddenly caught Keitaro with a sweep-kick, knocking his feet out from under him and sending the manager falling backwards into the waiting hands of the other residents. Grinning from ear to ear, the swordsman joined in by grabbing Keitaro's feet, and then all of them proceeded to throw him into the air in jubilation, proclaiming, "Congratulations, Keitaro!"

"Keitaro…" a voice called out as they set him back on the ground.

He spun around to find Naru standing there, waiting for him, clad not in her usual sweater and skirt, but in a beautiful white wedding dress, complete with a veil, and with her wings curled around her back and resting on her shoulders. She held a bouquet of flowers in her hand, and a light red blush on her cheeks.

"You did it, Keitaro," she said, her eyes shimmering with happiness. "Our promise has been fulfilled."

Without warning, the scene shifted to a chapel. Naru was still wearing the wedding dress, only now her wings were extended behind her, adding a perfect touch to her look. Keitaro's attire had changed to a well-cut tuxedo, and he noticed that the pews were filled with every one of their friends and family, all the people who had supported them every step of the way.

Suddenly, the stained-glass window high in the chapel shattered and a shadow fell over the proceedings. All eyes turned up to find Seta Noriyasu, Keitaro's sometime employer and Naru's former tutor, perched on the broken windowsill like the devil in Alloway's church.

"Hold it right there, part-timer!" he called out. "You think you're ready to hold Naru's hand?" The absent-minded archaeologist grinned. "I'll test you to see if you're worthy of her! Ready, go!"

The scene shifted once more to a beach at sunset. Naru, Keitaro, and Seta were the only ones present, their shadows stretching out to the horizon in the fading light of the sun. Naru stood a good distance away from the two men as they fought it out at the water's edge, trading punches and kicks in a flurry of movement so fast that it made her dizzy to watch.

"Please stop, both of you!" she cried futilely. Even she knew that she couldn't get them to stop at this point; it was a matter of honor between them. They would accept no other outcome but victory.

Then, above the sounds of blocking and swinging blows, she heard two especially hard cracking sounds, and both combatants froze in place, before simultaneously collapsing face-first into the sand.

So perhaps they would both accept defeat…

"You pack one hell of a punch, part-timer," Seta said. Pushing himself to his feet, the archaeologist dusted himself off, helped Keitaro up, and then walked toward the setting sun, calling over his shoulder without looking back, "I know I can entrust her to you now." He waved jauntily. "You take good care of her now."

And then Keitaro was alone on the beach with Naru. He turned toward her, smiling, and took her hands in his. Leaning in toward her, the last thing he saw as he closed his eyes was her beautiful, smiling face.

And as if performing the actions of an alarm clock, Seno's voice suddenly rang out in Keitaro's mind: "_Bing, reality!"_

This successfully jarred the daydreaming examinee back into wakefulness. He shook his head once to clear it, then picked his glasses up off the desk and turned his attention down to his test. _Well, that was a nice daydream, but now it's time to get to work._

What he next heard gave him strong reason to believe that he'd done something recently to severely anger God; the voice of the exam overseer calling out, "You have five minutes left."

_WHAT?_

Keitaro's eyes immediately shot to the wristwatch he had laid out beside his exam. As his mind registered that almost the entire given period for the exam had indeed passed, he felt as if the floor had been pulled out from beneath him. _No!_ Swiftly edging toward panic, his eyes shot from his untouched answer sheet, to the other examinees hurrying to finish their tests, back to his answer sheet, and down to the exam sheet.

_This can't be happening!_

--

_Auditorium C, Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan  
1505 hours, local time_

"How'd you do, Mutsumi?" Naru asked as she walked alongside the older woman toward Keitaro's exam room.

"It went off without a hitch," Mutsumi replied, smiling proudly. "I didn't faint this time."

"That's great," Naru said, stopping as she reached the exam room. "I feel pretty good about my test, too." Grabbing the handle, she twisted it in her hand and then flung the doors open. "Hey, Keitaro! How did you–"

She stopped as she realized that the room was completely empty. No examinees, no student helpers, no test proctors, and no Keitaro. She frowned as she released the door handle, feeling a sense of sadness wash over her. He'd promised that he'd wait in the exam room for her after he was done…

In her usual thoughtless way, Mutsumi breezed into the room and proceeded to inspect every row of desks, checking in the leg wells and between the aisles, just in case Keitaro was hiding in there somewhere. Despite her vast insightfulness, there were still times where she possessed the thought processes of a child. "Ara, if Keitaro's playing hide and seek with us, I think he's winning," she announced.

Naru ignored her friend's silliness and entered the room, walking toward the only desk that still had papers on it. She felt drawn to it, and as soon as the words on the top sheet of paper became clear in her vision, she knew why.

_Don't look for me; Keitaro._

Her heart leaping up into her throat, she rushed to the desk and snatched the piece of paper up, giving it a stare normally used to force information to make itself known to a certain ranger from Texas. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and her face contorted into a grimace as she fought to contain them.

As if sensing Naru's pain, Mutsumi suddenly stopped her childish antics and turned toward her friend, an expression of absolute seriousness dominating her airy features. She crossed the room to stand by her younger friend, and read the note that she still held in her hands.

Without a word, she pulled Naru into a comforting hug, and almost immediately the angel broke down, sobbing into Mutsumi's shoulder as she wrapped her arms around the Okinawan native, crushing the note inadvertently as she gripped the back of Mutsumi's shirt.

Tightly holding her friend, Mutsumi raised her head and stared off through the near wall, internally cursing their mutual friend's impulsive habits. _Keitaro, there's nothing in the world that would cause Naru to stop loving you, so why run away? Couldn't you see that this would only hurt her more?_

--

_Downtown Street, Hinata, Japan  
1518 hours, local time_

"Keitaro?"

The third, make that _fourth_-year ronin finally raised his head from staring at the concrete to find his old friends, Shirai and Haitani, standing in front of him, looking at him worriedly. Shirai was holding some sort of flier in his hands.

"Eh?" Keitaro muttered, completely drained of feeling. "Oh. Hey, guys."

Shirai and Haitani exchanged glances. "Uhh, you okay, Keitaro?" Haitani asked.

"Never better," the Hinata kanrinin replied lifelessly.

"Riiiight…" Shirai said, obviously not buying it. He looked down at the flier he held, then raised it so Keitaro could read it. That is, of course, considering that their friend looked up from the ground again. "Hey, check this out, man. It's a job listing we found at university."

Haitani nodded, and chuckled. "Manual labor overseas, with no experience necessary," he said, naming the high points of the flier. "Terms subject to change. Ain't that pretty fishy? What the hell kind of job is that, anyway?"

Needless to say, _both_ university students were shocked when Keitaro suddenly reached up, without looking, and seized the flier from Shirai's hand, before brushing between them and continuing his bleak, depressing walk down the sidewalk. All without uttering another word to them.

--

_Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1547 hours, local time_

By the time Mutsumi and Naru returned to the Hinata, the older woman had managed to calm down her friend, but only just so. On the way back, Mutsumi learned that Naru had _immediately_ jumped to the conclusion that Keitaro had assumed he'd failed his exam again, and had gone off to commit suicide rather than face whatever perceived negative reaction Naru would've had toward such news.

"I…it wouldn't have been such a big deal," Naru had sobbed. "I could've waited…another year… I wouldn't have been mad at him… He didn't have to…" Unable to bring herself to utter the phrase 'kill himself,' she broke down again, burying her face in her hands and crying her heart out.

"Don't think like that," Mutsumi had said soothingly, patting her younger friend's back and ignoring the glances from passersby, some of them disgusted, but most sympathetic. "I know he's okay. He just needed to get away for a little while so he could think, just like the last couple times. He'll be okay and come back in a few days."

The two entered the apartments in uncomfortable silence, save for the occasional hiccup Naru emitted from having cried so hard. Kitsune had been planning another celebration party for when the testing trio had returned, but the fox woman was currently passed out on the couch, a half-empty bottle of sake dangling from her fingers, and three completely empty ones surrounding her.

The only sounds in the living room were the tiny sounds of blasters, explosions, and war cries from the PSP in Seno's hands, the swordsman sitting on a loveseat with his back toward the entrance. He was completely engrossed in his game, _Star Wars Battlefront II_, and didn't notice the two women enter.

Both of them knew from experience that when he got caught up in a game like that, it would take very little, short of a real-life explosion right in his face, to get his attention. The pair began to cautiously sneak toward the stairs, hoping to get up to Naru's room without drawing the attention of any of the tenants.

They were halfway across the living room when the only other thing capable of getting Seno's attention away from a video game appeared at the top of the stairs. "Seno, have you seen my–" Motoko began, then noticed Naru and Mutsumi sneaking across the living room. "Oh?"

"Seen your what?" he asked, then looked up, immediately spying the sneaking pair. "Eh? Oh, hey guys. You're back pretty late. Where's–" He had been about to say 'Keitaro,' but the way that Mutsumi suddenly turned toward him and made a slicing motion across her neck silenced him. Time to improvise. "Ahh, where's… uhh… my copy of the third volume of _A.I. Love You_! Didn't you borrow that from me, Mutsumi?"

His poor attempt at a save was noticed by everyone except Naru and Kitsune, the latter too busy being unconscious, the former too busy being distraught over her missing boyfriend to even have paid attention to what Seno had said. But still, appearances had to be maintained.

"Oh, silly me!" Mutsumi replied, chuckling nervously. "I thought I left it with you before I went to exams this morning. Wasn't Motoko wanting to read that series?"

For her part, Motoko wanted to know how in the hell Mutsumi _knew_ that. She had seen the series amongst Seno's collection of manga and decided at random to read it. Even though the third volume was _not_ missing from his bookshelf, she had in fact just finished reading that volume, she still wondered how Mutsumi knew she'd been reading it.

"Naru, why don't you go on up to your room?" Mutsumi suggested, smiling innocently. "I'll see if Seno's manga is still in my bag, then I'll come up and bring you some tea."

Nodding dully, Naru made her way up the stairs past Motoko, who gave her a friendly smile, before continuing up to the third floor.

As soon as she was out of sight, Motoko rushed down the stairs to sit on the loveseat with Seno, who had paused his game and tossed the PSP aside. "What's wrong with Naru?" she asked, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, her chin resting in the palm of her right hand.

Sighing mightily, Mutsumi flopped down into the nearby recliner. "It's Keitaro," she said. "Naru and I went to get him after our test ended so we could come back here and party, but he was gone when we got to his exam room, and Naru found this on his desk." Pulling the crumpled note out of her pocket, she straightened it as best she could over her left leg, then handed it to Seno.

The swordsman took the note from her and held it so that Motoko could see it, then read the five simple words on its surface. Their reaction was immediate; Seno scowled as Motoko shook her head slowly. "Bastard," the swordsman muttered. "After all that me and the others have done to get you and Naru together, you go and do this to her?"

Neither woman disagreed with that sentiment.

--

_Commercial Fishing Boat _Maru_, Pacific Ocean, Near International Date Line  
1902 hours, local time_

On a large, modified fishing boat steaming out to sea, a crew of potential applicants to the job posting Shirai and Haitani had showed Keitaro gathered in groups of various sizes. Almost all of them were drinking heavily, and most were telling stories to one another or playing cards.

The only visible exception was Keitaro, lying face-down on the deck in a puddle of tears, mashing his face into it as though attempting to drown himself. As the young man blubbered incoherently against the deck, a figure in brown pants and boots stopped beside him. "Keitaro? That you, part-timer?"

Lifting his soaked face from the deck, he looked up to find Seta standing over him, leaning partially over with his hands planted over his knees. "Seta?"

Smiling, the archaeologist helped Keitaro to his feet and led the downtrodden young man away from the pool of tears, then handed him a mug of beer as large as his head. "Surprised you decided to come along, part-timer," he said. "Want some info on where we're going?"

Keitaro looked at the beer dubiously, then decided that the figurative definition of 'drowning his troubles' was a far better cry than literally drowning himself in his own tears. So after taking an appreciative chug of the amber-colored liquid, he nodded to answer Seta's question.

The archaeologist nodded as well, then began fishing through the pockets of his battered white labcoat. "We're headed for an island called Parara…something," he said, producing a packet of cigarettes in one hand and a lighter in the other. Tapping the package against his left wrist until a cigarette popped out of the top, Seta snared it in his teeth, then replaced the package and began thumbing his lighter. "According to my mentor, this place is supposedly where the ancient turtle civilization originated, so we're going to do some excavating."

Finally managing to ignite his lighter, Seta brushed the flame against the end of the cigarette until it caught, then put away the lighter and took a deep breath of the cancer stick. He carefully watched as Keitaro continued to chug away at the beer. "You seem awfully depressed," he noted. "What's wrong?"

Sighing, Keitaro set his empty mug down and gave the bottle sitting to their side a withering glare. "I blew my chance of getting into Tokyo University," he replied bleakly, closing his eyes as he lowered his head. "I drifted off into a daydream during the most crucial part of the test."

When he got not a peep from his sometime employer in reply, he looked up to see that Seta was now sitting with one of the various groups of people. He sighed, his mood severely worsening. "Even Seta's abandoning me now…"

The failed ronin pushed himself to his feet, then wandered over to the edge of the deck, wrapping his hands around the salt-rusted metal railing. "At this rate, there's probably nobody in the world who cares about me right now," he muttered. Idly, he shoved his right hand into his coat pocket.

Feeling the weight of items within, he grabbed them and pulled them out, and found himself staring at his exam ticket and the small booklet in which he kept all his photo stickers. As he stared down at them, he felt a heavy weight pressing against his heart. "I guess… I don't need these anymore," he said, closing his eyes. _Goodbye, Tokyo University. Goodbye, Hinata Apartments. Goodbye… Naru…_

Rearing back his right arm, he let out a grunt as he hurled the items out to sea with as much strength as he could muster. He opened his eyes, staring out over the water as he expected them to hit the ocean's surface and sink out of sight.

To his surprise and indignation, a sudden burst of headwind flared up, sending the lightweight paper items flying right back into his face. Grumbling in irritation, he reared back and threw them again, ignoring the fact that the headwind was still against him. After another return to his face, he once again attempted to throw them out to sea.

Cursing in one of the Star Wars languages he'd picked up from Seno, he was about to throw them out one more time, when his eyes fell on something on the back of the exam ticket. "Huh? What's this?"

Turning the ticket upright so he could read the writings, his eyes widened as he realized that the back of the ticket had been well-meaningly vandalized by everyone who lived at the apartments, wishing him well during the upcoming exam.

_Get into Tokyo U, Keitaro! Su_

_I hope you pass this time. Haruka_

_We'll be Tokyo U students together? Mutsumi_

_Go on and work hard. ? I came up with this idea all by myself! Are you moved? Are you crying? Kitsune ?_

_Because of sempai's support, I work harder at school now. I believe that you can pass, sempai! Please work hard and good luck! Shinobu_

_I know you have courage and strength, Keitaro. Show me some results! Motoko_

_Take it easy and keep focused. I know you can do it, man. Seno_

As he read the messages they had left him, he felt tears begin to well up in his eyes. "You guys…"

For a fleeting moment, he almost thought Naru hadn't signed the ticket, but then he realized that her message was hidden by his thumb, in the very corner:

_Keitaro, Whether you pass or fail, we'll still have our promise, and each other. Love, Naru_

Numbly, he read over the message Naru had left him several times, even going so far as to run his thumb over it to ensure that it truly existed. He fell to his knees, clutching the exam ticket to his chest. "Naru… how can I… I could never forget… any of you…"

He raised his free hand to his face, feeling tears seeping out from behind his glasses, around his hand, to slide down his face and fall to the deck of the ship below him. The misery of all the friends he was trying to abandon crushed in on him.

"I'm not even... worthy of your attention, Naru…" he whispered between sobs. "You, an angel, and me…? I'm just a worthless failure…"

Almost as if confirming his statement, the winds suddenly shifted, ripping the exam ticket out of his hand and blowing it out over the open ocean. His head shot up and he stared in horror at the sailing scrap of paper, feeling as if all his memories, all his ties to the friends he had failed, were being taken away from him on that scrap of paper.

"NO!" he shouted, leaping up from the deck and jumping after the exam ticket. "I won't let any of you go! Especially not Naru!"

As his flailing hand secured the exam ticket in his grasp, he grinned triumphantly. Then his mind caught up with his body, and he realized that he was no longer on the ship. In a comedically-cliché cartoon moment, he looked down to see nothing but ocean beneath him, before performing a spectacular belly-flop into the sea.

Up on deck, Seta looked up at the sudden splashing sound. "Hmm?"

With the surface rapidly receding above him, and his consciousness swiftly fading from lack of oxygen, Keitaro reached out imploringly to any gods or deities that would deign to intervene and save his life. But to his expectations, no such divine intervention came.

_To think, I'll die in a place like this…_ he thought. _I'm sorry, everyone… sorry, Naru…_

He felt something thin and wiry brush against his back, before turning and seizing hold of him. A spooky, disembodied voice called out to him, "_This is not your grave… But you are welcome in it…"_

His last thought before losing consciousness was an ironic one; that even in death, he could not escape his damned daydreams.

--

_Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1726 hours, local time_

"Hey Su, go get that lightsaber you've been working on," Seno said.

The hyperactive girl grinned and dropped the two bowl-shaped electrical inducers she'd been holding, then reached behind her back. "No need!" she exclaimed. "I brought it down with the rest of my interrogation devices!"

She produced a bladeless, cylindrical weapon hilt and held it out to the swordsman. He, in turn, took it in his right hand, his left resting prominently on the sheathed hilt of his sword. In a departure from the norm, Seno wasn't wearing his usual red buddy Jesus shirt. This time, he wore a black shirt with an image of Chuck Norris wielding a pair of submachine guns, with the phrase "I don't step on toes, I step on necks" beneath it.

Turning the homemade lightsaber over in his palm, the swordsman cast a wicked grin over to the bound forms of Shirai and Haitani on the living room floor. He and Motoko had been out shopping when the raven-haired woman had spotted the two, and sensed that they knew something about Keitaro. Thus, she and Seno had captured the two former ronins and dragged them back to the apartments for an interrogation.

And every resident was out for blood that day.

Motoko stood beside Seno with the unsheathed Hina blade held loosely in a reverse left-handed grip, her own brand of the 'Demon Eyes' expression turned full-power on the hapless victims. Kitsune was on Seno's other side, a broken, jagged-edge sake bottle in hand and a malicious expression on her face. Giggling madly, Su scooped up the electrical inducers and smacked them together, causing a burst of electricity to leap between them, highlighting her features in a terror-inducing blue backwash. Shinobu stood off to one side, a frying pan clutched in her hands and tears in her eyes, but she looked more than willing to do her share to extort any information about Keitaro out of the prisoners.

Kitsune stepped up to the prisoners, leaning forward and resting her left arm on the matching knee, and brandishing the broken bottle threateningly. "I think it's about time you two pigeons started singin'," she said, a deadly-serious tone underscoring her normal accent. She waved the bottle threateningly over Haitani's lower region. "Before I suddenly lose control of this here bottle with its _very_ sharp edges."

"P-please don't hurt us!" the taller man squeaked, squirming violently in an attempt to get away from Kitsune.

"We don't know anything!" Shirai added. "Honest!"

Standing up straight, Kitsune turned to look toward Seno, as did the other interrogators. The swordsman had drawn his blade two thirds of the way out of its sheath, angling the flat of the blade toward the prisoners.

"We don't know where Keitaro went!" Shirai proclaimed.

A crack appeared in Seno's blade.

"Wrong answer!" Kitsune exclaimed, grinning. "Since you two are bein' difficult, that means we've got no choice but to bring out our most successful, and terrifying, interrogator."

On cue, Su bounded back toward the closed door leading to the kitchen, yanking it open to reveal Haruka standing behind it, clad in her usual attire, and armed. Kitsune, Haruka, Seno, and Motoko had discussed beforehand that she would arm herself with a simple bullwhip as a show of intimidation, but all three conspirators blinked in surprised when she stepped out with a full-sized cat o'nine tails, with several additional braids tied into the dangling rope tails.

Wincing visibly, Seno knew that Haruka was definitely not taking the disappearance of her nephew lightly. Partially to scare the prisoners, and partially because he knew the potential of bloodletting was going to be high, he turned to the youngest two members of the Hinata apartments and said, "Su, Shinobu? I think you two should go upstairs. Now."

Shinobu immediately nodded and headed for the stairs, her eyes glued to the whip as though it were a snake coiled to strike her. Su, on the other hand, pouted. "I wanted to watch!" she protested.

Motoko turned her glare on the obstinate foreigner. "Su, do as he says," she ordered sternly.

Dropping into a full-body pout, Su sighed theatrically and trudged along the path Shinobu had worn; even she knew better than to mess with Motoko when she had _that_ expression on her face. For several moments, the only sounds were Su's footsteps as she trudged up the stairs, and the terrified panting of Shirai and Haitani.

With the kids out of the room, Haruka crossed the living room to stand before the captives. "Save yourselves some pain," she said in her usual deadpan tone, snapping the menacing weapon in her hands. "Tell us where Keitaro is."

The pair squealed in terror, but Shirai stopped suddenly, his face turning red. "Well… if it's Haruka… I might not…mind…"

"I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR TWISTED FANTASIES!" Haitani shrieked, as Motoko and Seno both grimaced at Shirai's apparent fetish, while Haruka's right eye twitched.

"Believe me, kid," she told the shorter prisoner, "if it'd been a bullwhip, you may have gotten off with just a few lash marks. This is guaranteed to leave scars, and some of the places I aim won't be pleasant at all."

As the color drained from Shirai's face, Haitani looked around desperately for any salvation. His eyes fell on Naru, sitting against a wall nearby with her legs drawn up to her chest, her forehead resting on her knees, and her face hidden by her legs.

"Come on, Naru, help us out!" he begged. "We seriously don't know anything."

At his plea for help, Naru stiffened, but didn't look up or change her posture.

A grin twisted Seno's features. "Boy, you just signed your death warrant. Haruka, put the whip away. We're about to not need it."

Smirking, Haruka coiled the whip and looped her arm through it, then reached up to pull her expended cigarette from her lips. She crushed the burning end between her fingers, then tossed the unlit butt away. "Naru, you remember what we told you," she said. "Let 'em have it."

The trio of interrogators cleared space, while the prisoners blinked in confusion, and Naru remained motionless.

And then she wasn't there anymore.

The last thing Haitani saw was a flash of white, and then the rapidly-receding Hinata apartments below him.

Shirai, meanwhile, had gone completely ashen at the sight of Naru crouched on the floor before him, her form still outstretched from delivering the devastating strike that had launched Haitani clear out of the building. And as to how she had managed to cross the room faster than the eye could follow? Well, most of the reason why Shirai was as white as a ghost had to do with the equally-white wings extending straight up from Naru's back.

"I take it you've heard the saying 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'?" Haruka asked him. As he nodded dully in reply, she smiled thinly. "Well, neither does Heaven. Ready to talk?"

Fortunately, Shirai was spared from having to answer by the phone ringing. Demonstrating a remarkable dexterity with the cat o'nine tails, Haruka snapped the whip over, secured four of the nine tails around the handle of the phone, and then jerked it back into her free hand. All without looking.

"Hello, Hinata Apartments," she said.

"_Hey there, Haruka!"_

She sighed. "Seta? I'm busy right–"

"_Oh, that's alright. I just wanted to let you guys know where Keitaro is."_

"What? Where Keitaro is?"

At just the mention of his name, Naru's head snapped over to Haruka and she leapt up from where she crouched, snatching the phone away and bringing it to her ear. "What's going on! Is Keitaro with you?"

The archaeologist chuckled. "_Yeah, he's with me. We were on a boat and I saw him fall into the sea, but apparently he washed up on this island. I don't know how he did it; it's a long way to swim."_

"Seta, what island are you on?" Naru demanded.

"_Hmm, let's see. It's called Parara…err, something. I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce it. It's in the Pacific Ocean, just about–"_

Seta's voice cut off suddenly, replaced by a dialtone. Evidently, the call had been disconnected. "Seta!" Naru screamed into the phone. "Seta!" She growled and threw the receiver at the wall. Nobody was surprised when it split along the middle.

The next thing they knew, Naru had vanished up the stairs, leaving the rest of the group extremely confused and wondering what the hell was going on. "Ten to one says she's going after Keitaro," Seno said.

"I'm betting your side," Kitsune replied. Motoko and Haruka shook their heads.

"Yeah, I better go, too," he said, then started up the stairs.

Motoko was only a step behind him. "Why do you need to go?"

"Well, somebody's gotta stop her from killing him," he answered. "And two, I owe him an ass-whuppin' myself for coming this close to undoing the work I did to put them together."

The swordswoman pondered this for a moment, then nodded. "You'll probably need help to stop Naru from killing him," she said, then smiled at her husband. "I'll come along, as well."

Less than ten minutes later, the trio stepped out of the front door of the apartments. Naru was loaded down with a suitcase full of clothes and other items, and had slung a coat over her other arm. Motoko and Seno traveled light by comparison, each with a simple travel bag stuffed with two changes of clothes and personal hygiene items. Likewise, both carried their respective swords.

"I'm telling you Naru," Seno was saying, "all that junk's going to be a liability. Do you _really_ need that many different outfits?"

"It's no big deal," she replied. "I'm not like you two, anyway. It's not as easy for me to travel so lightly."

She looked up, meeting eyes with her fellow examinee and friend, Mutsumi. "Oh, hello," the Okinawan native said, then looked at their bags. "Are you all going on a trip? But Naru, don't you want to see the exam results?"

Naru blinked, then quickly shrugged it off. "Could you check for me?" she asked. "We're going to find my idiot boyfriend and bring him back."

With that, the younger woman stepped past her friend and continued down the stairs. Seno gave Mutsumi a 'What can you do?' shrug and followed.

The great journey for Keitaro was on.


	10. Pursuit and Pararakelse

_"Somebody had to stay behind and keep the place from burning down while the others ran off on another one of their adventures."  
_- Haruka Urashima; 'On a Wing and a Storm'

**Chapter IX:  
Pursuit and Pararakelse**

_August 14, 2006  
Ancient Chamber Beneath Oasis, Pararakelse Island  
1145 hours, local time_

Geothermic differentials were truly a marvel, if one stopped to consider them. Half a mile above, the surface of the desert was a scorching wasteland, temperatures soaring well over the hundred mark on a Fahrenheit thermometer. The only respite from the heat would be the oasis located directly overhead, where the water remained a cool eighty degrees, give or take, and the temperature in the shade of the palm trees was actually below the triple-digit level. A negligible difference, but in the desert it made the difference between life and death.

But deep underground, in the ancient chamber buried hundreds of meters belowground, it was much colder, more near the middle sixties. There was a stillness in the air attributed to hundreds of thousands of years of disuse, and no visitors. A thick layer of dust coated every surface, and the dirt on the ground was as undisturbed as that of the Moon prior to Apollo 11.

Footfalls echoed in the echoingly-vast chamber, heralding the end of the thousands of years that had passed without a single soul entering the chamber. A dim, dark blue light began to fill the chamber, exposing for the first time in centuries the rock and debris. As shadowed mists began to creep along the floor of the chamber, a foreboding sensation filled the room.

Around the final corner came a figure that seemed to be half-corporeal, half-shadow. He had the face of a young man, the clothes of a Meiji-era samurai, and an aura of absolute evil.

The hitokiri spirit, Kawakami Gensai, strode directly across the chamber, dust crunching beneath his feet. A self-satisfied smirk rested on his face as he came to a stop in front of the massive rock door on the other end of the cavern, protected by some form of ancient seal.

But as Gensai touched the shimmering shield in the air, causing it to dispel, even that was proven ineffective at holding him back. As he stepped up to the door, an ancient magical sensor system detected him and triggered the doors to open. The shrill shrieking sound of stone gnashing against stone filled the air as thousands of years of undisturbed dust suddenly loosed from the area surrounding the moving parts of the door, drifting through the air in a suffocating fog of dust.

The room beyond had no illumination, save for a crystalline structure on the far end of the chamber. It emitted a pale blue light, pulsing rhythmically in time to some ancient temporal machine. The pulsing light from the crystal threw harsh backlights across the various rock formations and ancient memorabilia scattered throughout the chamber. Various ancient guard statues taking the shape of half-turtle, half-human hybrids dominated, all of them angled toward the entranceway that Gensai was crossing through.

But he paid them no mind. His attention was on the crystal, and the figure contained within it. Trapped within the crystal, frozen in a state of suspended animation, was an adult male, his arms spread out to either side as though he had been crucified, and his body leaning forward toward the leading edge of the crystal. He had dark, tanned skin, black hair of indeterminate length, and his clothing consisting of a loincloth covering his lower regions, and a breastplate that appeared to be made out of turtle shells. This theory was supported by the large snapping turtle heads adorning both shoulders.

"So, the legend is true, after all," Gensai said, approaching the crystallized figure. "Sealed in stone beneath Pararakelse Island's Desert of Death until Judgment Day."

As he came within a meter of the crystal, a barrier flashed into existence, repelling him. Scowling, he reached out to touch the barrier, his intent to dispel it as he had the previous one. He was unpleasantly surprised when the barrier flashed again, forcefully knocking him backwards and resisting his dispelling touch.

"Hmph. I see that whoever sealed you away took the effort necessary to ensure that freeing you would be a task not to be completed by the weak," he uttered. "The fool probably gave his own life to generate the necessary mana to stand up to my shield-breaking abilities."

On the left side of the chamber, an ordinary-seeming rock structure suddenly lit up, drawing the hitokiri's attention. As he glanced over, he realized that it was not a rock, but a crystal formation, in the rough shape of an organ. It glowed from within in the same color as the crystal, with red flashing idiosyncratically across the 'keyboard' portion of the formation.

Cocking his head to one side, Gensai stepped up to the crystal formation and pressed one finger down on its surface. As he had half-expected, a low musical note echoed out into the chamber, bouncing off the stone walls. Pausing, he watched the pattern of the red light flashing beneath the keys, and realized that it was tantamount to being told how and what to play.

"Well, when in Rome…"

His hands fell onto the surface of the crystallized organ, his fingers dancing to follow the red indicator lights. As he listened to the music he was creating, he realized that it was a hauntingly beautiful melody. And yet, despite that, it was oddly fitting as an awakening.

Columns of light rose up out of the formation, growing higher and spreading outwards as his fingers continued to stroke the keys professionally, despite never having touched such an object before in his existence. The colors of the light columns, each as thin as a rod of bamboo, each ran the gambit of the visible light spectrum. When standing beside one another, the combined pattern resembled that of a rainbow.

Throughout the first verse of the song, the light columns rose up and spread out, snaking like vine tendrils to connect with the walls, the ceilings, the floor, and the crystal trapping the figure within itself. At the end of the verse, he paused briefly as no further red lights revealed themselves, and the columns disconnected from the crystal formation, drawn into the objects they had touched as though they were liquid being pulled through a tube.

When they had all vanished again, a pattern of runic symbols had appeared on every surface of the chamber, glowing a faint white color and brightening the room almost to the level of daylight. The only objects left untouched were the organ and the crystal containing the sealed being.

The second verse of the song began just as quickly, a slower, more melodic tune. As he keyed the notes to that verse, the runes all pulsed once before beginning to vanish in a wave pattern, starting at the far entrance of the room and making their way toward the crystal. As the last set of symbols surrounding the crystal vanished, the room fell into darkness; even the light of the crystal was vanquished.

Suddenly, the four runic symbols that had been repeated in indistinguishable patterns across the chamber flashed on the surface of the crystal, one at a time. As each one flared up and vanished, the outward surface of the crystal became more and more translucent, as though layers of it were being stripped away. Turning away from the now-dimmed organ, Gensai watched in mild curiousity.

Finally, the last symbol flashed across the surface of the crystal, and its front half shattered, spilling its occupant onto the dusty ground. The figure, rather than fall face-first to the ground, caught himself on his hands and knees, his mid-back length hair curtaining around him.

Gensai smirked. "Well then, Namusan Sapou," he said. "You've been asleep for quite a while, haven't you?"

--

_August 16, 2006  
Above the Pacific Ocean, Approximately 500 Miles SSE of Tokyo, Japan  
1534 hours, local time_

"I'm seriously led to question exactly how safe this is," Seno said flatly, staring out the nearby window at the Pacific Ocean, several thousand feet below him.

The trio had, at Naru's behest, enlisted the aid of sometime Hinata Tea Shop employee Kentaro Sakata, well known for his variety of odd, experimental contraptions, to get them to where they were going. Currently, the vehicle they were using to travel resembled a gigantic bullet, with jet engines at one end and a wraparound Plexiglas viewport directly to the front.

"Scared of flying?" Kentaro called back from the front row of seats, where he was controlling the craft with what appeared to be the handlebars of a motorcycle.

"Not remotely," the swordsman replied. "But this thing defies all laws of physics and has precisely _zero_ aerodynamic qualities for its size."

Turning away from the window, Naru looked toward Kentaro. "It is a pretty strange contraption," she said.

The Tea Shop part-timer smirked. "You're behaving kinda strangely, yourself," he shot back.

"Can you blame her?" Motoko asked, leaning back comfortably in the second row and idly running her thumb along her wedding band. Shippu squawked from her left shoulder, sounding as if voicing agreement.

"No, I guess not," Kentaro replied. "Rash, impulsive actions. Jumping into a situation without thinking about it first? Sounds just like Naru."

Seno snickered. "Dude, if you weren't driving this thing, she'd totally knock your teeth out for that."

Giving Kentaro a serpentine glare, Naru cracked her knuckles. "Who says I care that he's flying?"

"It works like this, Naru," Seno said, reaching forward and poking the back of her head. "You knock his ass out, we crash into the ocean and everyone dies. You go back to Heaven, yes, but you don't get to see Keitaro again until _he_ dies, however long that may be. So on one hand, you can satisfy your ego by knocking Kentaro into next week, or on the other hand, you take a hit to your pride and get to see Keitaro again _before_ Judgment Day."

The Tokyo University hopeful was perfectly still for a moment, then she hissed out a sigh and slouched, staring glumly out the window. "Damn it, why do you have to make so much sense?"

Smirking, the swordsman leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. "It's my job. I'm the comically all-knowing sidekick."

"We're getting pretty close," Kentaro said, pointing out the front viewport to a fairly-large island looming out of the sea, which comprised mostly of mountainous forests and a large desert. "Unless I miss my guess, that's Pararakelse Island."

"Parara-what the fuck?" Seno said. "Nevermind. I'll probably go my entire life without ever being able to properly pronounce that name."

"Myuh!"

Almost as if manifesting completely out of nowhere, Tama-chan suddenly appeared on Naru's shoulder, raising her left front flipper in her usual manner of greeting. Naru blinked in surprise and looked over at the newly-revealed fifth member of the party.

"Tama, you little stowaway!" she said, smiling.

"Clearly, Naru's hair now functions as a bag of holding…" Seno muttered. He paused, and looked to the side. "Are we ever going to stop using that gag?"

And at the sight of Tama, Motoko had, predictably, gone into an immediate full-body muscle lock, even affecting her ability to squeak out the word "turtle." After a moment, her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed back on the seat.

Looking over at his unconscious wife, Seno sighed and raised his left hand to his forehead. "Even though there's no one in this craft that's technically underage, I still feel obliged to warn kids to look away now," he said.

Naru gave him an evaluative stare. "What are you going to do?" she asked, her voice held neutral.

"Since we returned from Kyoto, I have learned that Motoko is, contrary to popular belief, a very heavy sleeper," he replied matter-of-factly. "To that end, she often needs some, shall we say, _persuasion_ to wake up if she doesn't want to do so. I have learned a few techniques for doing so, some of which I would not perform in public under any circumstances. There are a few safe ones, however."

She gave him a wry smile. "Am I going to have to get a vomit bag?"

The swordsman rolled his eyes. "You probably haven't done any worse with Keitaro than what I'm going to do," he shot back.

With that, he leaned over to Motoko and began to softly kiss her neck just below the angle of her jaw. The reaction was immediate. Groaning softly, Motoko leaned her head to the side to grant him better access, then began to slowly open her eyes, muttering, "Okay, okay, I'm up…"

She didn't realize that she _wasn't_ in the room they shared in the Hinata until she saw Naru staring at them, her cheeks flushed red. Motoko felt heat rise to her own face, and she turned to glare at Seno, who merely shrugged and said, "It was that, smelling salts, which I have none on me, or some of the _other_ ways I know to wake you up."

After a moment, she accepted that he had done what was needed and nodded slightly, but the glare she was casting him was barely reduced in intensity. He smirked, winked at her, then turned his attention forward. What he saw out the forward viewport caused his brows to furrow and a serious expression to appear on his face.

"Okay, I've got an intelligent question," he said, then pointed out. "What the hell is all _that_?"

Before anyone could reply, the ship was suddenly surrounded by a mass of flying turtles moving in the opposite direction. Amazingly enough, not one turtle hit the craft; all of them skillfully slipped around the hull without losing any speed.

"Ack!" Kentaro exclaimed. "A migrating flock of hot springs turtles!"

Naru blinked as, predictably, Motoko fainted again. "Where are they all coming from?" the Tokyo University hopeful asked, watching them fly over and around the ship.

"How am I supposed to know?" the pilot shot back. "I can't see a thing through all of them." Pulling on the steering lever, he attempted to guide the craft out of the sea of turtles, to no avail. "Damn it, we have to turn back. There's no way we can fly through this!"

"But why?" Naru demanded, then leaned forward to look down below the craft's flight path. "Where are we?"

"Let's see…" Kentaro said, looking over his instruments. "Satellite indicates we're right over Pararakelse Island." He glanced over toward Naru, to find that she was no longer in her seat. With a longer glance, he saw her standing near the exit. "Wait a second!"

Busy in the second row of seats attempting to revive Motoko without resorting to his earlier methods, Seno looked over to see Naru standing at the door, perfectly still, hunched forward slightly with her back pushed out. He smirked at the back of Kentaro's head. "Might want to lower your head."

Blinking, the tea shop part-timer looked back at the ducking swordsman, who had also pulled Motoko down below normal sitting level. And because he failed to heed the swordsman's warning, he was given a smack to the face by Naru's extending left wing for his trouble.

Muttering a curse that was simultaneously from the surprise of being hit and the surprise of being hit _by a wing_, Kentaro rubbed his face and stared blankly at the wings folding themselves up on her back. "What in the…"

"Long story," Seno cut in, already wearing a parachute as he went about the process of securing one to the semi-conscious Motoko and pulling her toward the door. "Well my man, it looks like this is our stop. Appreciate the lift."

Naru looked back over her shoulder at Kentaro, her hand holding the door release lever, and smiled warmly. "Thank you for the ride," she said. "Now to bring my good-for-nothing boyfriend back home."

She pulled down on the lever and the door rose up into the hull of the craft. Wind whipped through the interior, carrying with it the calls of the hot springs turtles, one of which paused long enough to wave at Tama, who returned it.

In the next moment, all five of the 'recover Keitaro' party had cleared the bottom of the flock of turtles. Tama and Seno released their parachutes, Seno released Motoko's for her, Shippu easily kept pace beside the swordswoman, and Naru spread her wings out to her sides, leading the descent down to the island below.

--

_August 16, 2006  
Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan  
1436 hours, local time_

Meanwhile, at Tokyo University, a large crowd had gathered around the posted list of applicants accepted after the last test. The scene was at once an atmosphere of jubilation, suspense, and heartbreak as potential university students searched for their names on the list and either found them or didn't. A background din of conversation interspersed with loud cheering made it difficult for one to hear oneself think.

Near the middle of the crowd, Mutsumi scanned the board, searching by student ID number rather than name, since there were a number of names that resembled hers at a quick glance. Finally, her eyes fell on the number "A10582" and the name beneath it, "Mutsumi Otohime."

"There it is!" she exclaimed joyously. Kitsune, Shinobu, Su, and Naru's step-sister Mei crowded around her, quickly spotting her name on the board. "I made it in! I passed!"

"Good job, Mutsumi!" Kitsune said with an ear-to-ear grin, giving the older woman a thumbs-up.

"Way to go!" Su shouted, bouncing around the group.

"All your hard work has finally paid off," Shinobu said in that reserved manner of hers, smiling widely.

As another fainting spell descended on Mutsumi and Kitsune and the others fought to keep her conscious, Mei stepped forward and scanned the board, quietly repeating Naru's ID number to herself. "A44251… A44251… A44251… There it is!" she exclaimed, pointing to the board.

The rest of the crew swiftly crowded around her, including the now-revived Mutsumi. "Naru made it as well," Kitsune said. "It's about time!"

"If only Naru was here," Mei said. "I'm so happy for her!"

With that, Kitsune, Mutsumi, Su, and Sara turned and began to leave, with Kitsune reporting, "Well, time to head on home, everybody."

"We can't go yet!" Shinobu cried, stopping them in their tracks. "We still have to see about Keitaro!"

Kitsune gave the younger girl a sympathetic look. "It's no use troublin' ourselves, sugar," she said softly. "After all, he did run away when he realized he'd failed again." She shrugged helplessly. "Besides, we don't have his exam card anyway."

Shinobu stubbornly shook her head and began to hop from one board to another, scanning the myriad of numbers and names. "I think I remember his number…" she muttered to herself. After a few moments, movement from her left side caught her attention, and she looked over to see the others staring wide-eyed and drop-jawed at the board two sections down from her. "What's going on?"

Moving back over to them, she looked down the list on that section, starting from the top, until she found what they were staring at. When she saw it, her own eyes widened as big as saucers as she squeaked out a surprised gasp.

--

_Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1722 hours, local time_

A few hours later found Mutsumi, Kitsune, and Haruka seated around the coffee table in the living room of the Hinata, staring down at a map of the Pacific region laid out before them. Haruka placed her finger on a tiny black speck on the page halfway between Japan and Hawaii.

"This is definitely that Pararakelse Island that Seta was talking about," she said.

"Even those three that went after him are all MIA," Kitsune said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "What's the big deal? Do ya think somethin' happened to 'em?"

For her part, Mutsumi stared down thoughtfully at the map, her brow furrowed in concentration. _Pararakelse?_ she thought to herself. _I think that there's a Streammind in that area… And things have started acting up recently. This can't be coincidental._

Engrossed in their own thoughts and discussions, none of the women noticed Shinobu sneaking out the door with travel clothes on, and a suitcase in hand. Outside, the young girl paused to look back at the Hinata, as though having second thoughts about setting off to find her lost friends on her own.

"I want to be the first to tell Naru about the good news," a voice called out from the direction of the stairs.

Spinning around, Shinobu found Mei and Su standing in front of her, both wearing clothing suited to travel. "Su? Mei?" she asked. "Are you guys sure? If we go by ourselves, we'll get in a lot of trouble when we come back."

Taking on an expression of complete seriousness, Su reached out and laid a hand on Shinobu's shoulder. "We're best friends, right, Shinobu?" she asked, the seriousness carrying through to her tone of voice.

Shinobu nodded once. "You're right! So let's find those guys and bring them back!"

Stepping past Mei and the exuberantly-cheering Su, Shinobu began to walk down the stairs, only to draw to a halt when she found Mutsumi and Kitsune blocking her path, the former with her usual cheery expression, and the latter grinning wickedly.

"Just like I suspected," Kitsune said. "Y'all ain't got nothin' to go on, so what help could you be by runnin' off overseas? Besides, Naru, Motoko, _and_ Seno are on the case, so you know they'll get the job done."

"But what if the four of them don't come back?" Shinobu shot back before running forward in an attempt to blow past the pair.

She knew it was a futile gesture from the outset, and when Kitsune's hand shot out to snag the collar of her coat and lift her up into the air, her foresight was confirmed.

"That's just nonsense," Kitsune said. "You know they'll all come back."

Tears began to well up in Shinobu's eyes as she saw her hopes of being able to rescue the rescue party begin to slip away. "You can accomplish anything if you set your heart to it," she whispered. "That's what Keitaro told me!"

"Hmm…" Kitsune said, regarding her younger friend contemplatively.

Su and Mei took the opportunity to sneak past the two older women and get a few steps ahead, before Su turned back to call out, "Shinobu! Press the button on your bunny!"

"Eh?" Shinobu asked, reaching back and pressing the large eye-shaped marking on the blue bunny's forehead. "This?"

Touching the button triggered a jet engine which Su had clearly installed in the doll at some point, consuming Kitsune in a blast of hot jet wash as Shinobu was propelled forward, out of the fox woman's grasp.

Grinning, Su produced a remote control and pressed a button. "Mecha-Tama 3! Go!"

Behind her, a hidden doorway built into the stairs slid aside, revealing a darkened launch tunnel, out of which emerged a tortoise-shaped mech about thirty feet long, with a control center on the back of its shell. Su and Mei jumped onto the mech, and Su paused to grab the rocket-propelled Shinobu by her hand and pull her on as well, before the giant craft engaged its powerful jet engines and roared into the sky.

Coughing and sputtering, Kitsune stood up from where she'd been blasted into the ground by the backwash of the smaller jet engine, wiping dust off of herself. Beside her, Mutsumi smiled faintly. "Well. It's just about time we go," she said. "But there's just one problem. I don't have enough money for an airline ticket…"

Kitsune grinned. "Don't you worry about that," she said. "I got a plan…"

--

_Hinata Marina, Sagami Bay, Japan  
1803 hours, local time_

Down at the Hinata harbor, Mutsumi and Kitsune snuck onto a yacht decorated on the port side bow with the two main characters from the manga series that Motoko had been reading from Seno's collection, _A.I. Love You_. Standing at the bow of the ship was their target, a seemingly-average Joe wearing blue jeans, a white casual business shirt, a black casual jacket, and with thick-rimmed glasses on his face. He stood with his eyes closed and his arms out to the side, feeling the sea breeze on his face.

"The series is finished," he said to himself. "Now I can take a well-deserved vacation and sail around the world!"

At a tap on his shoulder, he spun around to find Kitsune standing directly behind him, her face almost right in his. "Oh, Mister Akamatsu!" she cooed. "We're going to temporarily commandeer your yacht and sail to Pararakelse Island!"

"You're going to _what_? But it's the first vacation I've had…"

"Ohh, so you don't want to help us?" Kitsune asked, leaning in even closer to him. "Well, is that it?"

"I…umm…I…ah…" He sighed and lowered his head. "Come on, I'm no good at long lines…"

--

_August 16, 2006  
Excavation Camp, Southwest Pararakelse Island  
0837 hours, local time_

Halfway across the ocean, in an excavation camp on Pararakelse Island, a mob of angry workers chased after a pair of figures running for their lives with a big bag full of various food items and bottled water. For a moment, as the mob cornered the thieves against an excavated wall, it seemed as if they had the upper hand. But then the smaller, female figure grabbed the taller male by his shirt and scrambled up the scaffolding set against the wall, pulling him up along with her.

Another group of workers waited atop the wall, and attempted to tackle them as soon as they cleared it, but the thieves once again evaded capture as the girl jumped clear over them, pulling her accomplice along with her. They landed on a sheet of fabric suspended from four poles, which acted as a makeshift trampoline to propel them up onto the roof of a thatched building.

The girl landed nimbly on her feet, while Keitaro fell to his knees, clutching the bottle of water he held for dear life. For the moment, it seemed as if they were safe from the mob, at least until they brought out a ladder.

Wrong.

"_Kibaryuu_!"

Once again demonstrating a remarkable ability to avoid danger, the girl grabbed Keitaro's shirt and pulled him back out of the range of an explosion of energy that rose up through the roof. Panicking, Keitaro looked around wildly to see which of the group they'd pissed off was capable of using ranged technical attacks.

Then he heard a voice. A decidedly-familiar, _female_ voice. "Did you really have to do that?"

A male response. "Not really. But you know how I like to make an entrance."

As Keitaro's panic-fogged brain began to associate names with the voices, two more figures leapt up on top of the roof, landing easily on their feet and staring across at him. He recognized them immediately: Seno and Motoko.

He blinked. "What… are you guys doing here?"

"Looking for you," Seno replied flatly, scowling. "You, sir, are in deep _osik_. And for those of you keeping score, _osik_ is the Mandalorian word for shit. Which you are in a lot of. And my intimidation factor just went out the window."

Keitaro looked from Seno's drawn sword, to the still-smoking hole in the roof that was caused by the swordsman's Dragon Fang attack, to his scowling expression, to Motoko's almost-identical expression of displeasure. "No, I'd say you still have plenty of intimidation."

"Oh? Good. Then I've got a suggestion. _Run_. It won't help you, but it might make you feel better."

Even if Seno hadn't said it, just the extreme anger that the couple was exuding made fleeing in terror sound like a very good idea to Keitaro. And so he did just that. Grabbing his accomplice by the hand, he took off into the woods.

As soon as he was out of sight, Seno and Motoko turned away, both sheathing their blades and losing their expressions of outrage. "So we're giving him a head start, then?" Motoko asked.

Her husband nodded. "Five minutes, at least. We're faster than him, and I'm hungry."

--

_Forest  
0900 hours, local time_

Deep in the woods, Keitaro was busily assembling all the bottled water they'd managed to recover into an easy-to-carry parcel that he would carry on his back. Once he was sure that he had secured it enough so that they wouldn't fall out, he slung the parcel over his shoulders and stood up.

"This should be enough to get us across the desert," he said. As he glanced toward his accomplice, he noticed the somber expression on her face. "Hey, don't worry. I know you're going to keep your promise."

"My… promise…" she repeated quietly, then smiled.

The peaceful moment was shattered as a flock of birds took to the air, startled by the sudden shout from beyond the clearing, "Your head start's over, Keitaro! It's hurt time!"

As Seno and Motoko burst into the clearing, with the former wearing an expression of malicious glee while the latter seemed to be just along for the ride, Keitaro's expression became the classic 'deer in the headlights' for a split-second, before his body snapped into motion.

Grabbing his accomplice by the hand, he shouted, "Crap, time to go!" and then took off deeper into the woods.

"Don't run, Keitaro!" Seno taunted. "You'll only die with a hole in your back!"

"We don't have any guns…" Motoko reminded him.

He smirked. "True, but my way sounds much better than "You'll only die tired." Anyway, since your ranging skills are decidedly less-lethal than mine, would you do the honors and give him a wakeup call?"

Rolling her eyes, Motoko placed her right hand on the hilt of the Hina blade. "I suppose I can," she said, then clenched the blade. "_Shinmeiryu ougi: Zangaken_!"

A wave of ki energy roared off her rising blade, sailing straight and true to impact with Keitaro's back. As they both expected, he merely took the hit in stride, not even losing his balance from it. However, the strike cut several of the ropes holding the water parcel to his back, spilling the dozen or more bottles to the ground.

"The water!" Keitaro cried uselessly, but dared not stop to pick it up.

Suddenly, the tree line gave way before them, revealing a seemingly-limitless expanse of desert stretching out before them beyond the range of vision. Dunes rose irregularly at various intervals, and heat waves shimmered above the sandy surface.

As they followed the routed Keitaro into the desert, Seno and Motoko exchanged worried glances, and knew their objective had changed from 'terrorize Keitaro' to 'make sure the dumb bastard stays alive.'

"Shippu," Motoko said, looking up at the crane perched on her shoulder. "Find Naru and lead her to us."

With an affirmative squawk, Shippu extended his wings and flapped them powerfully once, propelling himself up into the sky in search of their other party member. That taken care of, the couple continued their chase, hoping that Keitaro would have the sense to stop running away before anyone suffered a heat stroke.


	11. Burning Sands

**Disclaimer:** The character and backstory of Namusan Sapou belongs not to me, but to Ryutaro. Apologies for not getting permission beforehand to use him, but I promise I'll do my best to give the bastard justice.

* * *

_"On that deserted beach, I was standing in the presence of one of the most evil beings in either world, and didn't even know it at the time."  
_- Mei Sakura; 'The Unification War, Volume 1: Overtures'

**Chapter X:  
Burning Sands**

_August 16, 2006  
Pararakelse International Airport, Pararakelse Island  
1118 hours, local time_

Being a remote, out-of-the-way island, one would expect the facilities and amenities of Pararakelse Island to match that setting. It did not. Aside from a bustling, tourist-driven resort town, Pararakelse Island also featured a large international airport.

Out on the tarmac of the airport, a giant turtle-shaped mecha sat giving off cooling ticks, its jet engines hissing to alleviate the built-up heat from a nonstop flight from Japan. On the back of the mech, three young girls looked around in a mixed bag of confusion, surprise, and excitement at their surroundings.

"This is Pararakelse Island?" Mei asked, blinking. She hadn't quite expected to see such a large airport on such a tiny little island.

"Now what are we going to do?" Shinobu asked bleakly. "How will we find them?"

Hearing the dejected tone in her friend's voice, Su leaned forward and looked sideways into Shinobu's face, then dug around in one of her pockets for a moment. "Well, Shinobu, that's where this comes in handy!" With a grin that did perfectly fine in replacing any nonexistent fanfare, Su produced a circular device that was patterned like a turtle shell, with a radar screen in the center of the obverse.

"Isn't that the turtle radar?" Shinobu asked.

"I modified it to pick up a signal from Naru and Keitaro!" Su replied, grinning triumphantly.

Almost on cue, the radar screen lit up green. Blinking in surprise, Su brought the device down and carefully inspected its surface, then smirked and pointed ahead. "We found them! Mecha-Tama 3, go!"

Hydraulic lifts within the mecha's 'legs' lifted it off the ground enough for the VTOL-style engines to rotate back into flight position, propelling the turtle-shaped craft forward and up into the sky.

--

_Desert of Death, Pararakelse Island  
1230 hours, local time_

"So how long have we been chasing him?"

"I lost track an hour and a half ago."

"Damn, who knew the little bastard had this much stamina?"

Hours of running through triple-digit temperatures in the middle of the day were taking their toll on all of them. Keitaro was the most visibly affected; for the last hour, each new step he had taken had been a major effort on his part. Motoko's hair was pasted to her forehead by sweat, and Seno couldn't even bring his feet all the way out of the sand.

"Stop running, bastard!" Seno snarled. "You're going to get us all killed!"

Keitaro slowed down marginally, seemingly considering it. Behind him, Motoko suddenly stopped walking. Seno looked towards her in time to see her eyes roll up in her head as she pitched forward. Swearing, he dropped his sword into the sand and went down onto a knee, catching her in his arms and turning her over to face up.

"Motoko!"

Stopping completely, Keitaro looked back to see that Motoko had passed out, and his instinctive reaction to help others overrode everything else. Turning back, he started to run back toward them when his exhaustion overcame him and he collapsed face-first into the sand, facing uphill, away from Seno and Motoko.

Expelling a mixture of sand, saliva, and sweat, Keitaro laid there with his face half-buried in the sand, staring at his upturned left hand. _I guess this is it, then,_ he thought to himself. _My journey ends here._ As he laid there, a single white feather drifted into his field of vision from in the sky, landing in his outstretched palm. _What's this?_ Instinctively, his hand closed over the feather.

As if triggered by his action, a flash of movement caught his attention, and he looked up to see Naru standing uphill before him, her back toward him, her wings spread out to her sides. He blinked, trying to determine if she was real or a figment of his imagination, and as he did so, she turned toward him and extended her right hand. "Don't give up, Keitaro," she said warmly. "All you need to do is make it over one last obstacle."

Reaching out, Keitaro took her hand and she pulled him up to his feet, then led him to the crest of the hill. Behind them, Seno retrieved his sword, picked Motoko up in his arms, and followed them to the top of the hill. What he saw almost caused him to drop her into the burning sands.

There, barely a hundred yards ahead of them, the desert gave way once more into deep jungle. And at the threshold of the jungle was a shimmering, crystal-blue oasis, capped by a rock formation that looked strangely similar to the general shape of Tokyo University.

Science has yet to explain how all of them managed to get from the hilltop to the waterfall feeding the oasis in under ten seconds flat, but that's just how things happened. Keitaro, Naru, and Nyamo immediately placed themselves beneath the waterfall, drinking from and soaking in its cool waters, while Seno knelt in the shallow end, alternatively scooping handfuls of water to gently coerce Motoko into drinking and just soaking his hand in the water before running it over her face in an effort to cool her down.

Beneath the waterfall, Keitaro sighed luxuriously and looked over to Naru, who was seated on a rock and completely soaked in water. She noticed his slack-jawed stare, and looked down to see that the water had soaked through her shirt, causing it to cling to her body like a second skin.

A deep blush rising to her cheeks, she slapped her hand against the water, which sent a pressurized wave of energy through it, creating a minor tidal wave to sweep Keitaro away from the waterfall. "Go find us some food!" she yelled, almost as an afterthought.

Seno watched in amusement as Keitaro bounced across the surface of the water like a skipped stone, to smack into the far bank. His attention was quickly shifted elsewhere as he felt Motoko begin to stir in his arms. He looked down to see her own olive eyes staring up at him.

"What happened?" she groaned.

"You passed out," he answered. "Exhaustion and dehydration, probably. It's a good thing Naru found us this oasis, or we'd all be in trouble."

Lifting herself off of his lap, Motoko found that she was indeed sitting chest-deep in cool, comforting water. Smiling, she took a deep breath and then dove underwater, pulling herself out to the middle of the oasis, where the water was deep enough to actually swim in.

Seno smiled at his wife's antics, leaned over to drink one last handful of water, then stood up and followed on Keitaro's exit vector. "I guess I'll do the manly thing and help Keitaro with the whole hunter-gatherer thing."

Meanwhile, Naru picked disdainfully at her soaked shirt. "Looks like we're all going to need dry clothes…" she mused.

--

_Ancient Cavern, Beneath Desert of Death  
1252 hours, local time_

"Everything seems to be proceeding as you planned," Namusan Sapou said, crossing his burly arms over his chest as he stared into the crystal projector that currently displayed an image of Seno, Keitaro, Motoko, Naru, and Nyamo around the oasis.

Gensai smiled humorlessly. "Of course," he said off-hand. "I've been at this game for over a hundred years. I _know_ what I'm doing."

"I still fail to see how this lot could pose a threat to my war against Heaven," Sapou replied derisively, his stance and expression indicating how little he thought of the Hinata party. "They're a bunch of children playing at being fighters."

"They're a genuine threat to us both, my friend. Nakakami and Aoyama have a slightly-respectable amount of skill with their blades and command over energy forms. Furthermore, there is that angel to consider."

"_She_ is the only one that is even worthy of consideration, and even then only as a means to produce more soldiers for my army."

"Yes. But to acquire her, you must first destroy those who would protect her. This, accomplishing both of our goals. I am rid of those who are the gravest threat to me, and you are one step closer to conquering Allah."

"Very well. Your plan is satisfactory. I shall see to it that our mutual goal is accomplished."

--

_Oasis  
1756 hours, local time_

By dusk, Seno and Keitaro had gathered enough food to feed all five of them, with plenty of leftovers. It mostly consisted of fish caught from the oasis, but there was a healthy collection of various fruits and nuts gathered from the trees and plants nearby.

"I still say we should've nabbed that snake," Seno said, keeping an eye on the fire-roasted fish.

"Seno, it was a _snake_," Keitaro replied. "You mean to tell me you weren't at all affected by _Snakes on a Plane_?"

"Dude, come on, that movie was a B movie for the sake of being a B movie." The swordsman scoffed. "I caught more errors and inconsistencies in that movie than I care to remember. And besides, I'm pretty sure I could've dressed up that snake to _not_ look like a snake."

"Oh, boys…" Naru called out from behind them in a sing-song tone.

Seno and Keitaro exchanged glances. "Why do I get the feeling we've been sold up the river?" the swordsman asked.

"What do you mean, 'we'?" Keitaro shot back. "You can get out of most trouble; I'm the one that's always up the creek without a paddle."

"True."

Shrugging, the two decided to face fate and looked back toward Naru. Their only regret was that they hadn't looked sooner. All three of the girls had ditched whatever they had previously been wearing in favor of bikinis made of nothing but leaves and thin branches. While Seno pondered the physics, or lack thereof, behind the girls' new attire, Keitaro's nose immediately started to drip blood.

Dinner was consumed at an appreciable pace, and afterwards, the quintet began to split up. Nyamo curled up a few feet away from the fire and was asleep in minutes, with Tama snoozing on the rapidly-cooling sand beside her. Seno and Motoko had wandered down the 'beach' a way from the fire, hand-in-hand, conversing quietly. That left Keitaro to sit and stare into the fire as Naru went off to retrieve a large leaf to use as a makeshift blanket for Nyamo.

The Hinata manager looked up as she returned and sat down next to him, sliding over to lay her head on his shoulder. "Seta told me that Nyamo's grandfather disappeared," she said without preamble.

Keitaro nodded. "That's right. He set out to explore the interior of this island, searching for the lost turtle civilization, Pararantis. And people just assume that he died out here." He looked over the top of Naru's head, to where Nyamo slept nearby. "Nyamo made a promise with her grandfather, that when she grew up they would go looking for Pararantis together."

He felt Naru tremble as he said this and, assuming she was getting cold, wrapped his arms around her. "So now she's trying to find it all by herself," he continued. "She's absolutely convinced that her grandfather will be there waiting for her. When I heard that, I knew I had to do everything I could to help her realize her dream."

Sighing, he let his arms slip off of Naru as he said, "I screwed up my promise with you to get into Tokyo U, so I thought that maybe if I could help her keep her promise, it might somehow make up for my failure."

Naru reached up and seized his left arm in both of hers, holding onto him tightly. "You stupid jerk," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "It doesn't matter if you keep that promise or not. I'll still love you either way."

He looked at her in outright surprise. "But, Naru… We've spent our whole lives trying to fulfill that promise. It wouldn't be fair for me to just get off the hook like that."

"We have the rest of our lives to look forward to, Keitaro," she replied, squeezing his arm. "But we can deal with that later. For right now, I'm going to help you and Nyamo find Pararantis."

He smiled ruefully. "I really shouldn't even ask if you even care about making it into Tokyo University, should I?"

Her expression became that of a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "I actually didn't even check the results," she said. "When I found out you were here, I came straight away with Motoko and Seno." She looked down, then back up into his eyes. "But Keitaro… it doesn't matter to me. If you really did fail, and I did too, we can just retake next time. All that matters to me is being here with you."

This was the part that sometimes came as a bit of trouble for Keitaro. While he had managed to acclimate himself very quickly to the concept of dating Naru, it still caught him off guard that she could love him with just as little regard to her own state of affairs as he did. In his mind, the natural order of things was that he sacrifice anything and everything he needed to in order to ensure that she always had exactly what she wanted, and not the other way around.

But of course, it's common knowledge that Keitaro was not quite the sharpest tool in the shed.

And thus it was to the great shock of everyone, including the voyeuristic Seno and Motoko down the beach, when Keitaro offered no further argument, and instead leaned in to kiss Naru.

Over a dozen feet away, Seno smirked in satisfaction and laid back on the sand, lacing his fingers behind his head. He looked up at Motoko, still sitting up beside him, and said, "Mission complete."

"Okay, Heero," she taunted, rolling her eyes as she adjusted her position and laid down beside him, resting her head where his arm met his shoulder. She yawned and slipped her arms around him, snuggling up tight against him. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Motoko," he said, kissing the top of her head before resting his own against hers. Turning his face up toward the heavens, he let his eyes slip shut and began his journey towards sleep.

--

_August 17, 2006  
Desert of Death  
1014 hours, local time_

The next morning found Su's Mecha-Tama craft sailing above the desert floor at an altitude of a hundred feet, all occupants focused on scanning the sands below them for any sign of their missing comrades. Suddenly, the jet engines gave out momentarily, sending the craft plummeting down to the shrieks of its passengers.

The engines sputtered, boosting the craft back into the sky, before failing again. This time the Mecha-Tama was only twenty feet off the ground when the engines kicked back in, pushing it back up at a significantly-lower altitude than it had previous been traveling at. Clearly, Su had forgotten to include long-range fuel capacity on the craft's design.

In the 'cockpit' of the Mecha-Tama, Shinobu and Mei were hanging on to the railings for dear life as the radar device began beeping from Su's pocket. Taking one hand off the controls, she reached back and retrieved the device, then stared at its display. "There!" she exclaimed, pointing to the oasis looming before them. "The reading's coming from that jungle!"

"So that's where they are?" Shinobu asked.

Any reply that Su was going to make was interrupted by a burst of flame from the rear of the mech as the last of whatever fumes it had been running on went completely dry, sending the turtle-shaped craft careening down toward the forest. Luckily, they were only about thirty feet in the air, so the likelihood of serious injury was very low. The mech slammed into the forest floor, throwing all three of the occupants clear to land in an ungainly heap twenty feet away.

Groaning, Su brought the still-flashing radar in front of her so she could see its display, then sat up and blinked in surprise. Numerous contacts were beginning to appear on the radar screen. "What does _that_ mean?" she asked no one in particular. "Five…seven…no, hundreds!"

"Are you sure?" Mei asked, picking herself up off the ground.

"It's an army of Keitaro!" Su exclaimed. "Or perhaps an army of Naru…"

Mei leaned over Su's shoulder to try and determine if the device was broken or not. Shinobu, on the other hand, was staring out into the woods, and what she saw caused her to utter quietly, "I think the most likely explanation would be… an army of turtles!"

Su and Mei looked around. The Mecha-Tama had landed at the edge of a large depression in the ground, into which the three of them had been thrown. And ringing the edge of that depression on all sides were hundreds of tortoises.

Without warning, the tortoises began pouring into the depression like water from a bowl, flooding toward the three girls from all sides and dogpiling on top of them. Oddly enough, however, as soon as the three girls had hit the ground, the tortoises backed off and began to gently nudge them with their heads.

Then, out of nowhere, a voice could be heard over all the grunting and mewling of the tortoises, singing a song with no words. As if on cue, the tortoises all stopped what they were doing and looked toward the voice. Shinobu likewise uncovered her head and looked to see what the commotion was about.

There, standing in the center of the depression, was a girl who, if she wasn't so tan and had shorter hair, could pass for Shinobu's twin. Fearlessly, the girl walked through the masses of tortoises, which parted for her like the proverbial Red Sea.

"She looks like me…" Shinobu uttered.

The quartet of tortoises that had been surrounding her turned and stomped off at a wave from the girl, who knelt down in front of Shinobu and smiled. "Don't be afraid," she said softly. "They just want to play."

Behind the girl, half-obscured by the jungle, Shinobu saw Keitaro, Naru, Motoko, and Seno wander past, and stop. Keitaro looked over to the girl and called, "There you are, Nyamo. Come on, let's go!"

The girl, Nyamo, stood up and turned to catch up with the others, leaving Shinobu and the others to their own devices.

_Wait, Keitaro…_ Shinobu thought, trying desperately to call out to him. But no matter how hard she tried, her voice would not cooperate. _What a lousy time to lose my voice._

Her mind heavy with the weight of exhaustion and all that had happened recently, she lowered her head to the ground and passed out.

--

_Forest  
1122 hours, local time_

An hour later found Su working hard to repair the damage done to Mecha-Tama's engine from flying it on empty, while Shinobu and Mei sat off to the side. "Are you sure it was Keitaro?" Mei asked.

"I don't know," Shinobu answered, shaking her head. "Maybe it was just a dream."

Naru's step-sister took on a contemplative expression. "If all of them aren't really stranded on this island, but are here by choice, then maybe we should stop chasing after them."

"But why?" Shinobu asked.

"We might be interfering with them," Mei answered, drawing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"Either way is perfectly fine with me!" Su called, triumphantly slamming the engine panel closed before clambering up into the cockpit.

"We shouldn't just give up," Shinobu said sadly. "We can do anything if we try."

Mei looked at her blankly for a moment, before tilting her head to one side. "Didn't Keitaro tell you that?" She sighed. "He ran away after screwing up on his exam. That's not much of a role model. That alone proves that sometimes trying isn't enough."

The weight of Mei's pronouncement hit Shinobu like a sack of bricks. She turned to stare down at the ground, feeling depression begin to set its overwhelming weight on her.

_No,_ some inner part of her subconscious cried. _Don't give up, Shinobu!_

"No!" she shouted, standing up to her feet. Mei and Su both looked at her in surprise. "While it's true that I'm worried about Keitaro, I didn't come here just for them. The real reason I'm here is to see everything through!"

With that, she walked over to the Mecha-Tama and climbed up onto its back. "Let's go, Su," she said.

Smiling, Su laid a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder, then turned and activated the Mecha-Tama's drive system. While it couldn't fly any further without liquid fuel, the reactor still created enough power to propel it in quadrupedal mode. Pausing just long enough to pick up Mei, Su set the massive mech off stomping through the forest.

Standing at the front railing of the passenger area, Shinobu felt the sudden, irrepressible urge to sing.

_Uta o utau toki wa  
__itsu demo soba ni ita ne  
__hazukashii kimochi  
__demo naze ka na ureshii_

Initially surprised by Shinobu's sudden outburst of song, Su and Mei smiled, and were likewise drawn up in the routine.

_Fui ni mitsumeatte  
__shunkan de fukidashita  
__watashi to anata wa  
__hinata de jareru ko neko_

--

_Kentaro Crash Site, Desert of Death  
1123 hours, local time_

Out in the desert, Mutsumi and Kitsune, who had spent the entire morning wandering fruitlessly through the burning sands, suddenly stopped as they saw the crashed rocket craft that Kentaro had used to transport Seno, Motoko, and Naru to the island.

_Ima wa wasureta uta  
__togire togire ni nazoreba_

Boarding the craft through the open hatch, the pair quickly found Kentaro sprawled across the pilot's chair, unconscious. Walking up to him, they gently nudged him until he returned to the world of the living, completely surprised that anyone had managed to find him.

_pinto ga au you ni  
__yakusoku shita kotoba_

A short time later, the craft had been dug out of the sand, righted, and had changed propulsion modes from an airship to a treaded vehicle, rolling its way across the desert with Kitsune and Mutsumi standing on top.

--

_Forest  
1124 hours, local time_

Deep in the jungle, the adventurous quintet were carefully navigating a narrow ledge over a high river. Nyamo was in the lead, walking comfortably along the ledge, with Keitaro, Naru, Motoko, and Seno following her, in that order. Tama and Shippu flew close alongside the party.

_Mouichido utaou  
__itsu demo itsu made demo_

Naru, suddenly overcome by exhaustion, lost her footing and plunged over the side, but Keitaro reacted instantly, dropping prone to grab her left hand in both of his. With a bit of lifting help from Motoko, Keitaro pulled Naru back up onto the ledge, flattening himself against the rock wall and pulling her flush against him in the process.

_Omoide wa iranai yo  
__aitai ima sugu ni_

Smiling gratefully, Naru kissed Keitaro before stepping back behind him on the ledge and allowing him to continue forward. At the back of the formation, Seno threw both of his arms up in a "Let's mosey" gesture.

--

_August 18, 2006  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0824 hours, local time_

Back at the Hinata apartments, Haruka sat at one of the tables in her empty teahouse, smiling fondly down at an old photograph she held in her hands, of herself and Seta on a beach, her leaning back against him with her arms around his neck.

_Tomodachi ga iru kara  
__utaeru uta ga aru to_

--

_August 17, 2006  
Forest, Pararakelse Island  
1125 hours, local time_

In the forests of Pararakelse Island, Kentaro's faster treaded vehicle had just caught up to Mecha-Tama 3, and the two vehicles created a new side-by-side formation, allowing them to clear more ground faster.

_Shiranai de ita watashi  
__kitto shiawase datta_

_tomodachi ga iru kara  
__utaeru uta ga aru to_

_kizuita ima no kimochi  
__anata ni utaitai_

On the back of Mecha-Tama, Shinobu smiled and held her hand to her chest. She didn't know how, and she didn't know why, but in that moment, she felt that her heart was connected to the hearts of all her friends, both near and far.

"_Watashi wa koko ni imasu_," she sang quietly. "_Mouichido aitai_."

--

Finally, after their sometime-perilous journey through the desert and jungle, the adventurous quintet finally managed to get clear of the jungle. Only to find themselves standing at the edge of a cliff, with nothing ahead of them but the ocean.

"A dead end?" Naru asked, disbelieving.

Motoko frowned slightly as Keitaro and Naru looked off either side of the projection of land they stood on, and Nyamo went out to its very edge. Seno scratched his head.

"Damn it!" Keitaro swore, falling to his knees and pounding the ground with both fists. "We were so close, and we came so far! Why, dammit?"

Suddenly, they heard a cracking sound. Seno looked down to see a hairline split running through the ground directly between his feet. "That doesn't look good," he said, stepping over to the side of the fracture that his companions were on. "Something tells me that we're not in Disney World anymore…"

Almost as if on cue, the overhanging rock ledge that they stood upon broke free of the main cliff face and dropped a dozen meters to the ground below, unceremoniously spilling all of them into the breakwater.

"Man, it's a good thing I left the PSP at home," Seno said, staring down at his water-logged pants.

As the others tried to regain their bearings, Nyamo looked up and noticed something on the beach. She immediately stood up, revealing the water to only be calf deep, and walked back toward shore.

The others looked in the direction she was walking, only to see a giant stone statue of a turtle, covered in moss, sitting on a stone wall. Nyamo, already ashore, walked around the turtle statue until she found something that surprised her even more. A functional canoe-like boat, discreetly tucked away amongst the weeds.

"So this is Pararantis," Keitaro said, standing beneath the turtle statue.

"I doubt it," Seno replied, inspecting another part of it. "This is likely just a remnant of an outer wall. It _is_ an impressive find, though."

"Grandpa!" Nyamo called out suddenly, drawing the quartet's attention. "Grandpa!"

The Hinata crew, half expecting that she had found her grandfather, ran over to her, only to find the empty boat. Sighing, Keitaro placed his hands on Nyamo's shoulders comfortingly, but she brushed him off and began climbing to the top of the turtle statue.

Seno and Motoko stuck nearby to keep an eye on her while Keitaro and Naru walked further down the beach. "There's nothing here except that shrine," he said after a few minutes. "I guess that Nyamo's grandfather set out from here after he didn't find anything."

"Are you going to go?" Naru asked sadly, her back toward him.

He chuckled slightly. "It's Nyamo's dream, but I guess I've started to look at it as my own personal quest," he replied. "Maybe I'll even find some ruins that would blow Seta away."

"Then in that case… I'll go with you."

"What?" he asked, stepping up behind her. "Come with me? But you have Tokyo U…"

"I don't even know if I passed or not," she replied softly. "The night before the test, I couldn't sleep at all. That's why I wanted you to go with me. I didn't have the courage to face the exam board by myself. So, I thought that maybe if I could go with Nyamo and you…"

A rumbling vibration coursed through the beach, coming from the direction of the turtle shrine. "Nyamo!" they heard Seno shout. "Get down from there!"

The Tokyo University hopefuls looked down the beach in time to see the turtle statue explode violently, scattering stones in every direction and raising a cloud of dust. They watched in horror as Nyamo came sailing out of the dust cloud, but Motoko shot out after her, moving to intercept the girl and catch her before she hit the ground.

"Bastard!" Seno's voice called out from inside the cloud. "Take this!"

There was the sound of blades clashing, and then a heavy impact. A second later, Seno flew out of the cloud as well. The swordsman rolled in midair, landing in a crouch with Shinaijou held in his right hand, his left pressed protectively against his chest. "Son of a bitch…" he groaned.

A low chuckling sound was his answer as the dust cloud suddenly parted, revealing a tall man standing on the remains of the turtle statue. He was a well-muscled man, with a tanned complexion and black hair that ran down to the middle of his back. His clothing consisted of a loincloth and a breastplate made from what appeared to be turtle shells, and shoulder pads that were very clearly snapping turtle heads.

"How amusing," the man said disdainfully, his eyes focused on Naru. "An angel that does not possess the courage to own up to her errors. Though, that's not at all surprising for any member of your race. Nothing has changed in the thousands of years I've slept beneath the desert."

"Hey, bastard!" Seno snarled, pushing himself back to his feet and planting himself in the man's line of sight. "You're not done with me yet!"

"Be gone, insect," the man replied off-hand, waving off the threat Seno posed. A wave of purple energy slammed into the swordsman, knocking him completely off his feet.

"Seno!" Motoko cried, lowering Nyamo to the ground and running to her husband's side.

Smirking triumphantly, the man jumped off the statue and began to walk towards Naru, who was backing away in fear. "Come, little angel," he said. "Join me. Turn your back on God and I will give you everything that you desire."

His expression hardening, Keitaro moved to stand between Naru and the approaching man. "I don't know who in the hell you are, but you stay away from Naru!" he shouted.

The man's smirk widened into a grin as he held his right hand out to his side. A crystalline-bladed sword materialized in his hand, its hilt wrapped in turtle skin, the hand guards shell fragments. The guy was obviously very much into the whole turtle motif.

"Another pathetic insect to squash?" he asked. "The last one got only a warning. I'll clearly have to make an _example_ out of you!"

With that, the man burst into motion, taking the sword in both hands and holding it back on his right side. Despite the clear and grave threat he presented to Keitaro's life, the Hinata manager refused to back down, boldly staring down his impending doom rather than reveal Naru to harm.

"Now you die!" the man shouted, driving his sword forward at Keitaro.

But before it could hit, the clash of metal against metal rang out across the beach. To the shock and surprise of everyone present, Mutsumi was suddenly there, forming the third point of a triangle with Keitaro and the other man. An extended quarterstaff was held in her hands, the sound having been created when she had used the weapon to deflect the man's sword away from Keitaro.

"Listen to me, Namusan Sapou," she said, a hard edge in her tone and expression that none of her friends had ever seen before. "If you are going to pose a threat to my friends, then I have no other choice but to stop you!"

Namusan leapt back away from Mutsumi, breaking contact with her weapon, and stared at her intently, as if studying her. Then, he smiled. "Ahh, Yochi no Kouken," he said. "I certainly didn't anticipate that I would encounter _you_ allied with this rabble. My battle with Heaven does not concern the planet–"

"And it does not concern me," Mutsumi interrupted. "However, you wish to do harm to my friends, and I will not allow that."

He smirked. "Your friends are of little concern to me. I only want the angel in your midst. Give her to me, and I will allow the rest of you to live."

"Not. Going. To happen," Mutsumi affirmed.

"Well then, Yochi no Kouken. If you wish to stop me, then you must be prepared to die."

"Fire missiles!"

From down the beach, a barrage of anti-vehicular missiles roared over the heads of the Hinata tenants, raining down on the position of the beach where Namusan stood. As the turtle-obsessed enemy disappeared in a cloud of smoke and fire, Naru and the others looked back to see the Mecha-Tama 3 down the beach, providing missile fire, and Kentaro's rocket craft positioned beside it.

"Pathetic!" Namusan's voice called out. They all watched in horror as the smoke cloud suddenly parted and Namusan stood in the center of the crater that had formed, completely unharmed. He smirked triumphantly. "You expect those puny things to harm me?"

"No way!" Su exclaimed. "He's not even scratched!"

Without a word of warning, Motoko stood up and drew the Hina blade up over her head, charging up ki within the blade. "Hyakkaryouran!" she shouted, and a burst of rose petals and wind roared out toward Namusan. The backwash of wind threatened to knock everyone standing off their feet.

But Namusan simply raised his sword and struck horizontally. The air before the blade appeared to harden into a crystalline shield that effortlessly dissipated Motoko's special attack. "You need to try harder!" Namusan struck the shield again, shattering it into razor-edged crystalline fragments that all pivoted in midair and raced toward Motoko.

This time it was Mutsumi who reacted, waving a hand toward Motoko. A semi-transparent barrier formed of blue hexagonal panels materialized in the air before her, stopping the crystalline fragments cold. "That Protect spell will keep you safe a while longer," she said, holding her quarterstaff defensively in front of her.

"_It's my turn!"_ Kentaro exclaimed, sending his ship racing across the beach toward Namusan, the forward projection of the craft spinning like a power drill. Su's Mecha-Tama adjusted the angle of its missile launchers and fired another volley of rockets.

"ZANGAKEN!" Motoko shouted, striking the air with her sword, causing a wave of ki to rise from the blade and lash out toward Namusan.

"KIBARYUU!" came Seno's voice as the swordsman slammed Shinaijou into the beach sand. An explosion of energy rose out of the ground beneath their enemy.

With a wild grin on his face, Namusan reached out and grabbed the rotating drill of Kentaro's drill tank with his bare hands, stopping its rotation cold and neutralizing the threat that he presented. Demonstrating an ungodly strength, the tanned man lifted the vehicle from the ground and moved it into position to intercept the three strikes from the other attackers.

Motoko's ki wave struck first, ripping into the drive units at the rear of the vehicle and tearing away entire chunks of the engines. Next in line was Seno's underground energy explosion, which decimated the treads of the vehicle and compromised the cabin area. The volley of missile fire impacted against the top of the vehicle, the explosions compressing the entire hull and rupturing the fuel tanks.

As fire and explosions began to fill the cabin, Kentaro exclaimed, "_Damn, they got me…"_ then reached over and pulled the eject lever. A panel blasted off the top of the vehicle seconds before the entire pilot's couch was blown clear of the self-destructing craft.

Kentaro's rocket tank disappeared in a brilliant flash of light, accompanied by a blast that rocked half of the island. As the smoke began to clear, Mutsumi peered through it to see that Namusan was down on one knee, shaking his head as though attempting to clear it. She may as well have seen the stars circling around his head to know that he was stunned by the explosion.

"Motoko! Seno!" she called. "Now's our chance!"

Shaking off the ringing in his ears, Seno looked forward to see Namusan's state, and grinned. "All our attacks, plus Kentaro's little drill tank blowing up, must've filled up his break gauge. Now we'll get two free turns to nail him with."

Motoko glared at her husband. "This is _not_ Xenosaga 3."

He sobered and gave her a meaningful look. "No, but we can still use some of their tricks. Ready, Motoko?"

She nodded, then slowly raised the Hina blade to her right side, before tightly clenching it in both hands. "Zangaken…" The faint white glow of her ki began to emanate from her blade.

Raising his own blade, Seno touched it to Motoko's with the gentle ting of metal hitting metal. The aura of ki expanded to wreath his blade as well. Lowering his blade to his side, Seno rushed the stunned Namusan, striking out horizontally with Shinaijou. Motoko came in from an intersecting angle, her blade coming down vertically to bisect Seno's slash. Seno spun from where he had stopped, completing a full rotation as he brought his sword down in a vertical cut.

Both he and Motoko then leapt back, standing back to back, and called out "Shishikokoro Rendan!" Then they rushed forward, driving their ki-wreathed blades directly through Namusan's chest. An explosion of energy blasted their enemy back off their blades, to leave Namusan lying in the beach sand, clearly beaten.

Standing up, Seno looked over to see that they had won, then smirked, raised the Shinaijou up to eye level, before slicing it back down to his side. "It's just a scratch," he said.

Motoko just shook her head.

Mutsumi turned away from their fallen enemy, looking back at the others. "Is everyone alright?" She blinked. "Wait, someone's missing."

"Huh?" Keitaro asked, looking around. He saw Su, Shinobu, Mei, Naru, Kitsune, and Kentaro. With Seno, Motoko, and Mutsumi closer to the battle area, that left…

He suddenly looked out to sea, and saw a familiar tan-skinned figure standing in the boat that they had found, already five meters out. "Nyamo, wait!" he cried, running out to ankle-deep water.

"What's wrong, Nyamo?" Naru called, joining him in the breakwater.

The young girl looked back toward the shore, and held out her left hand in the unmistakable gesture to stop.

"She doesn't want us to come," Motoko said, joining the group along with Seno and Mutsumi.

Blinking in confusion, Naru fell to her knees in the surf. "But…why…"

"We can't go," Shinobu said quietly, "because this is Nyamo's dream. It's her personal journey, and she'll have to go it alone from here."

"All by herself?" Kitsune asked, a hint of sadness to her voice.

Shinobu nodded and smiled at her friend. "Nyamo believes that if she tries hard enough, she can do anything."

"Shinobu does, too," Mei said with a smile.

"So… we just get left behind?" Naru asked.

Keitaro walked over to her and knelt down beside her, laying his left hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure it would be a wonderful experience, but it's not our dream to fulfill," he told her. "Seta has his dreams, Nyamo has her promise. We can't just go trying to make their dreams our own." He smiled at her, then reached down to take her hands and pull her up to her feet. "Because, we have our own dreams and promises to keep. And no matter what happens, we have to keep moving forward toward them. There's nothing we can't accomplish."

Naru smiled in return, then rested her head on his shoulder as she looked out toward Nyamo's rapidly-retreating form. "Even if I failed this time," she said, "I'll keep trying for Tokyo U."

Kitsune, Shinobu, Mutsumi, and Mei all exchanged dumbfounded glances, then remembered that they had yet to tell Naru and Keitaro that they had passed the entrance exam. Before they could utter a word, however, an explosion from down the beach drew their attention, and the entire party looked over to see Namusan standing from where he had fallen, bloody and battered, and charging up a massive aura of energy.

"Do you think you've gotten the best of me?" he snarled. "I cannot be defeated by the likes of you!"

He released the energy in a massive shockwave pulse that spread to the extent of their vision. Everything that the wave touched, sky, sand, and water included, disintegrated into nothingness, leaving the party to fall into a vast, black void.

--

_August 17, 2006  
Unknown Location  
Unknown Time_

When Keitaro opened his eyes, he wasn't sure if he had gone blind, had his face covered by something, or simply had imagined opening his eyes. He saw a dank, dimly-lit area surrounding him, the dimensions of which he couldn't even begin to fathom. Something thick and organic was wrapped several times in body, preventing him from moving, and he had the distinct feeling that he was suspended in midair, and upside down.

That feeling was confirmed when whatever it was that was holding him moved, twisting and turning him upright and in the opposite direction that he had been facing. What he saw next almost caused him to recoil in surprise.

"What is _that_?" Naru's voice called out from somewhere nearby.

Ignoring what he saw, Keitaro twisted and turned within the grip of whatever held him, looking for Naru. There she was, a scant three feet away from him on his right, likewise restrained and held in the air by what appeared to be a green tentacle.

"_I…?"_ a voice replied, a voice that was naggingly familiar to Keitaro. "_I… am a monument… to all your sins…"_

The creature before them, if it could even be called a creature, was a startling sight. To Keitaro, it looked like a massively-overgrown Venus flytrap, with a pair of mandible-like extensions on the side of its main opening to help foster the illusion of a barely-humanoid mouth. This apparent head was connected to a mass of some sort of organic substance that was its body, which anchored itself to the chamber it resided in by way of the hundreds of tentacles, some larger than others, that sprouted off of the main body.

"Our sins?" Naru asked.

The creature made a deep grumbling sound, as though sucking in a watery breath of air. "_The sins of humanity…"_ it answered. "_Poisoning the planet, leading all on the path to destruction."_

"Oh, you have _got_ to be shitting me," Seno's voice said in the darkness. "Is this fucking _Gravemind_? If there are about to be Flood showing up, then I want out of this gig, right now."

Squinting into the darkness, Keitaro barely managed to make out Seno's silhouette, struggling with a bit more oomph than he or Naru had. _If Seno's here too, then everyone else probably is, as well…_ Following that line of thought, he peered into the dim light until he indeed managed to spot everyone: Kitsune, Motoko, Shinobu, Su, and Mei.

"Seno, would you stop with the game references for five minutes?" Naru hissed. "This is serious!"

As if in response, the creature pulled Seno out of the rough line that the group had been gathered in, out in front of them all. "_This one is steel and nerve, and has its mind concluded…"_ It then likewise pulled Naru out to the front, holding her up as though inspecting her. "_This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded."_

"Kill me or release me, parasite," Seno spat, once more stealing lines from wherever he deemed appropriate. "But do not waste my time with talk."

"_There is much talk,"_ the creature said calmly. "_And I have listened. Through rock, and metal, and time. Now _I _shall talk, and _you _shall listen."_

The creature lifted another of its tentacles out of the darkness, this one carrying Mutsumi. But unlike the rest of her friends, this tentacle had been coiled into a platform, atop which Mutsumi stood. "You're not very far from the truth, Seno," she said, smiling slightly. She lifted her left hand, gesturing toward the creature. "This is almost the same thing as Gravemind, except instead of being a collective consciousness for the Flood, this guy is the collective consciousness for the planet, composed entirely of Lifestream energy."

"Lifestream?" Motoko asked. "Like ki?"

The Okinawan native tilted her head to the side. "Sort of," she replied. "The Lifestream is the core of all things living. It flows through each individual person, plant, and animal, giving them life. Some have learned to harness this energy within themselves and exert it into a physical force. Ki is one such manifestation."

"But if the Lifestream gives life to everything," Naru said, "then what about…"

"God?" Mutsumi smiled. "God is the one who grants the Lifestream to planets that He wishes for life to develop on. He plants the Lifestream, sustains it, and when the time has come for a planet to die, He gathers the Lifestream to be transported across space to a new home."

"So is there any reason that this is like mashing together all of my favorite games?" Seno asked.

"That is one purpose of the Yochi no Kouken," she replied. "Aside from keeping watch over the planet and protecting it, it is also the task of the Yochi no Kouken to fragment the true knowledge of Existence and disperse it, as clues to be left for the heroes of destiny."

"And you decided that working these pieces of knowledge into a myriad of video games was the best way to do it?" Shinobu asked.

"It was my predecessor who began that work, not me," Mutsumi answered. "I merely made sure that it continued as planned. It was also my task to manipulate events so that the heroes of destiny would be gathered together when the time was right."

Kitsune blinked in confusion. "So you're sayin' that we're these heroes of destiny?"

Mutsumi nodded. "The only ones left who remain unaware of that destiny, yes."

"Why now?" Motoko asked.

Mutsumi frowned, her expression bleak. "Grave threats to the planet, no, to all of Creation, have risen. Kawakami Gensai is nearing his full power, and he will not stop at levying his vengeance upon Japan. Namusan Sapou, an immortal djinn who rebelled against God, will soon renew his war against the heavens. There will be others, those that have not yet awakened. To stop these threats, it is necessary for the heroes of destiny to awaken."

The crew was stunned into silence. What _could_ you say to a proclamation of that degree?

Shaking her head slowly, Naru looked over toward Seno, the closest person to her besides Keitaro. "No game references to throw in?" she asked teasingly.

He shook his head. "This part clearly didn't make it into any of the games."

"Xenosaga," Motoko said flatly.

"I guess you could count that one," he replied with a shrug. "KOS-MOS' awakening, and all."

"Well then, let's get on with it!" Su exclaimed. "Wakey, wakey time!"

Mutsumi smiled faintly, then closed her eyes and clasped her hands together beneath her chin. A pale, white-green aura rose around her, and soon the mind of the Lifestream began to glow as well, until the entire chamber glowed a soft white color.

The tentacles which held the Hinata crew restrained pulsed and glowed as well, transferring the energy of the Lifestream stored within them to each of them. "In the dark times that followed," Mutsumi's voice echoed throughout the chamber, "an Angel of the Lord came unto them, and entered into a covenant with them, that together they might stand against the darkness. And with them was awakened the staff of knowledge, the blade of power, the blade of justice, the blade of deception, the staff of light, and the potence of alchemy.

"Awaken, destined heroes, for your time has come. Keitaro, the blue mage. Naru, Angel of the Lord. Seno, the warrior. Motoko, the samurai. Kitsune, the thief. Shinobu, the white mage. And Su, the alchemist."

As she finished, the light of the Lifestream rose to a blindingly-brilliant white, overwhelming the vision of the Hinata tenants. They each had a brief sensation of floating unfettered, and then nothing.

--  
Save the game?  
O : Yes  
X : No

--End of Arc 2


	12. 9th Movement of the Odyssey

**A/N:** Before we begin this installment of _Kuro Arashi_, I would like to take this opportunity to dedicate this storyline arc to my grandfather, who passed away on April 3. He never knew a thing about anime or video games or anything that would have made up any constituent part of _Kuro Arashi_, but he was a father figure to me, and never gave me anything less than his full support. Many a time I remember he would walk up to me while I was writing something story-related in a notebook or notepad, and he'd jokingly tell me "Remember, it's Ellis with two l's when you put me in your book." Well Papa, you can rest assured that I got your name spelled right.

_Dedicated in the Memory  
Ellis E. Burnham, Sr.  
1932-2007_

* * *

"_Etched into their future, I could see, were many sorrows to come. But even then, my soul knew what I thought impossible; I would one day call them friend.__"_  
-Sabashii Kokuei; 'Justice for Those Who Are Forgotten'

**Chapter XI:  
9th Movement of the Odyssey**

_August 17, 2006  
Headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency  
Langley, Virginia; United States of America_

It was the most secure room in the entire North American continent. Buried deep underground beneath the headquarters of the CIA, encased on all sides by thirty feet of steel-reinforced concrete, many in the department joked that the CIA's Department 13 could survive the complete destruction of the planet, and would be a recognizable piece of debris.

"What's the situation?"

"Increasing activity of the global leylines, centered in the Western Pacific near the MolMolian island kingdom."

"Any idea what's causing it?"

"Not at the moment, but we had another activity spike in that area a few days ago, beneath Pararakelse Island."

"Troubling. What about our assets in that area?"

"We have none."

A mild curse. "Even more troubling. And Japan's Paranormal Agency?"

"They say it's out of their jurisdiction."

"Bastards. Fine, then. What about that rookie, the one that's never been on any assignments yet."

"Ruiz?"

"That's him. Get him a short mission brief and a prep, then get him over there as soon as possible. I want eyes and ears on this situation, fast."

--

_April 7, 2007  
Kingdom of MolMol, Western Desert  
2248 hours, local time_

A harsh, southerly wind blew across MolMol's western desert, propelling whorls of sand toward the northern part of the desert. The swirling wind was not quite up to the task of covering the sound of human activity in the area, as the rumbling sound of vehicle engines steadily grew and grew.

A sextet of four-wheeled light all-terrain reconnaissance vehicles roared over the crest of a small ridge, sand flying from beneath their tires as they slammed down onto the hard-packed sand half a dozen feet below. Their drivers demonstrating remarkable control of their vehicles, not one of the six LRVs lost traction or went out of control.

In the passenger seat of the lead LRV, a MolMolian sergeant lifted his hand and pressed it against the helmet he wore that concealed most of his face. "Spirit of Fire, this is Blue Six. We're closing in the recon platoon's last known location. No contact ye?"

"_Blue Six! Blue Six, we're under attack!"_

Shock writing itself across every visible part of his face, the sergeant scooped up a pair of binoculars sitting on the dashboard and held them up before his eyes, focusing in on the distant Todai ruins. He spotted movement from a column-like structure just at the entrance of the ruins, and focused on that location, quickly picking out the forms of two MolMolian soldiers running out of the structure.

--

A rush of heat blasted past the platoon leader as he heard an impact from behind him, followed by the scream of his comrade. He spun around, still moving away from the structure, and watched as his fellow soldier fell brokenly to the ground, his armor and clothing smoldering.

Knowing that he could do nothing more for the man, he turned away again and put all of his energy into running, knowing somewhere deep down inside that his efforts to escape were all in vain.

Moments later, his thoughts were confirmed as he felt another blast of heat just before something heavy impacted against his own back. Pain like liquid fire coursed through him in waves as he fell to the ground, the hard sand knocking the breath from him in a gust of air that sprayed sand up into his eyes. Ignoring the burning of the sand in his eyes, he levered himself up on his elbows, pulling himself along on his forearms.

He only managed a few feet before he saw a shadow fall over him. Rolling onto his back, he looked up at a powerfully-muscled man clad in turtle-plate armor and carrying a crystalline sword, which he was raising in both hands.

--

Back in the lead LRV, the sergeant watched helplessly as the armored man drove his sword down into the chest of the recon leader. A mangled scream sounded over the MolMolian battlenet, then fell into static.

--

As the dead soldier dropped to the compacted sand, Namusan reached down and grasped the corpse by the throat, lifting it up without any effort as the head flopped forward, allowing him to get a better look at the dead man's face. After a moment, he scoffed, and tossed the body carelessly behind him.

The corpse fell brokenly at the feet of Gensai, who glanced down at it for a moment before turning his attention back to his compatriot. "You've been getting careless, friend," he said calmly. "You know that the Marids still are pact-bound to serve the royal family here, and would easily have detected your magics that you were using to recall your armies."

Turning back to face the hitokiri spirit, Namusan lifted up his crystalline sword and rested it on his right shoulder. "All the better, then," he replied, then grinned. "The Marids will need to be dead anyway before we can begin the next step of this plan. What better way to do so than attract their attention to our stronghold, here."

"A truthful consideration," Gensai said, calmly folding his arms and looking out toward the oncoming MolMolian force. "Return to your preparations, Namusan. I will deal with these insects in a manner which will attract suitable attention." He lowered his left hand to rest on the hilt of his sword in emphasis.

Namusan raised his eyebrow. "In unchaining your Akaizou, even the heavens would notice." Turning away, he grinned again and clapped the smaller man on the shoulder. "Try not to overdo it."

Staring out at the oncoming MolMolian soldiers, Gensai removed his sheathed blade and held it up before him, snapping the chains binding the weapon in its scabbard with a flick of his thumb. Turning the weapon to the vertical, he allowed the black scabbard to fall from the sword's blade and clatter to the ground below. As the blade of the weapon was revealed, an almost-visible pulse of pressure burst from within the blade, spreading through the area and pushing the gathered clouds back a significant distance. The pressure wave also held the purpose of slowing time to a near crawl, allowing Gensai to make seven patterned slashes in the air, literally cutting the majority of the kanji symbol of 'Death' into the air.

He paused for a moment to look out toward the MolMolian military vehicles, then drew his blade across his body and struck horizontally, cutting the top line into the symbol. As soon as the character was completed, it flashed red once before a wave of energy burst out of the symbol, streaking outward toward the extremely-slowed MolMolian vehicles.

The energy caused no harm to the vehicles it passed, but when it came in contact with one of the soldiers, the leading edge of energy seemed to disappear inside the soldier, only to reappear out of his back, trailing a blue essence shaped exactly like the man it had been dragged out of. Dark motes of energy quickly attacked and tore apart these essences, leaving their previous owners slumped dead in their seats. No longer controlled by living hands, the vehicles careened out of control and crashed into one another and the rocks they were traveling between. Two exploded violently, spreading flames throughout the crash site and loosing a pillar of black smoke to rise into the air.

--

_April 10, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Japan  
1948 hours, local time_

It was the beginning of spring in Hinata Hot Springs. The air was warming up, filled with the songs of birds and the falling sakura petals. The annual spring festival was less than a week away, something that all the tenants eagerly looked forward to. From atop the roof of the Hinata Apartments, the sound of a hammer pounding could be heard all over the building grounds as Keitaro finished pounding the last of the shingle replacements into place.

Leaning back on the roof and dangling his legs over the edge, he set the hammer on the roof and wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his right hand. "Whew, that about takes care of all the major roof repairs," he said to no one in particular. Now all I've got left to do is fix up the boiler."

As Tama-chan flew up to the roof and landed on Keitaro's right leg, the Tokyo U student turned to look into the inner courtyard of the apartments, watching life go on as usual within the building. Su was dashing away from the kitchen, a stuffed burlap bag in her hands, exclaiming, "Wa ha ha! Hamburgler strikes again!"

Behind her, of course, Shinobu was stamping her feet in frustration, ineffectively calling after the foreigner, "But that food isn't even cooked yet!"

A short distance away, Kitsune was tied to a pole situated in front of a boulder, victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and thus chosen to be a target dummy for Motoko to practice her Zangaken Ni-no-Tachi technique on. "I don't need a haircut that badly!" the fox shrieked as the boulder behind her split in two on the heels of a massive energy explosion. Motoko simply grinned; she was picking up her husband's cockiness.

Keitaro looked up into the room shared by the swordscouple. Inside, he could see that Seno was playing Halo 2 on XBox Live again, and judging by the fact that the image on the screen was that of a blue-painted SPARTAN's head centered in the crosshairs of a sniper...Correction, make that a _dead_ blue-painted SPARTAN dropping off the screen, meant that Seno had acquired his beloved S2 sniper rifle and was busy 'eating win sandwiches' as he put it.

Beside Keitaro, Tama had spawned a turtle-sized hammer out of nowhere and was busily pounding away on the rooftop as the Tokyo U student watched his friends go about their normal lives. "Looks like another typical day at Hinata House," he said, causing Tama to look up and "Myuh?" at him.

His wistful smile faded, replaced by a serious expression. _I better hurry up and tell everyone about my plans,_ he thought. _And soon._

Suddenly, out of nowhere, obscenely-loud music began to blare across the apartments. The words were in English, so only three of the occupants had any prayer of understanding them. They went something as follows:

"_Innocent child,  
how you thought you knew me,  
understood my ways,  
my dark needs,  
the hunt is not the thrill I'm after,  
I want the kill, the conquest,  
to be your master,  
wrap your arms around my pale skin,  
it's too late to back out you're in,  
on your knees and praise your new lord,  
deeper now, and here's your reward, _

_take me to bed and rip me apart..._"

In his and Motoko's room, Seno looked away from the TV to listen to the words, and his only reaction was to raise his right eyebrow and proclaim, "And I thought _I_ listened to garbage," before returning to his game. Kitsune, Motoko, Shinobu, and Su all looked toward the noise with blank expressions; none of them knew enough English to understand the racy lyrics.

In the distance, a red convertible was approaching the apartments; the source of the music. The driver of the vehicle was tanned-skinned, with long white hair pulled back into a ponytail, a headband on his forehead, and sunglasses covering his eyes. He was bobbing his head and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the song, not caring who heard it. As his vehicle reached the bottom of the stairs up to the Hinata, he spun the steering wheel, sending the vehicle into a complete three-sixty spin that brought the vehicle to a halt at the base of the stairs, dust springing up to obscure it from view.

The driver then stepped out, pausing to look up at the apartments for a moment. Then he exclaimed, "Tou!" and leapt sideways over the hood, split-legged, landing gracefully on the other side and beginning his walk up the stairs.

It was the sudden burst of noise rather than their meaning that startled Keitaro, causing him to shout in surprise, lose his position on the rooftop, and go barrel-rolling down into the hotsprings as if following the instructions of a strange rabbit critter to 'press Z or R'. He sat up quickly in the shallow pool, shaking his head to clear it of the ringing, and when he opened his eyes, he knew he was in trouble. Before him, naked as the day they were born, Naru and Mutsumi sat blinking in surprise at him. "Oh crap..." he uttered.

In the next second, Naru was on her feet, her fist cocked back and _that_ look in her eyes. "Don't you ever learn!?" she exclaimed, loosing her infamous Naru Punch, even as Mutsumi shouted, "Wait, Naru!"

In the _next_ instant, Keitaro was airborne out of the apartment grounds, leaving a stunned Naru standing in the hot springs, staring down at her clenched fist. Then her brain caught up with her body, and she gave herself one hell of a mental kick. "Damn, I thought I was over that!" she groaned, then closed her eyes and concentrated. The familiar sensation of warmth washed over her as her wings sprouted from her back, and she took off in pursuit of her airborne boyfriend, completely forgetting to clothe herself first.

Meanwhile, Keitaro had gone sailing directly out over the front face of the building, and like a plasma mortar round from a Wraith tank, was on a direct course with the mysterious man marching up the steps.

The man paused, looking up toward the apartments, watching the incoming Keitaro. _Hmm, that's an incoming...something._ And then the rapidly-approaching Naru caught his attention. _Wait, is that...? Yes! I can spot a flash of naked female flesh from a parsec away!_

From literally out of nowhere, he produced a Polaroid camera and aimed it past the spinning, speeding Keitaro, to the flying Naru. And then, through the viewfinder of the camera, he caught sight of her wings, and scowled. _That_, he thought bitterly as he lowered his camera, _is an angel. What is one of God's chosen doing _here_, of all places?_ He sighed. _Can't even get away from that accursed conflict, even here. Oh well._

He put away his camera and grunted, considering his options. They came down to two: leap, land on the spinning nerd, and immediately give away his skills, or pretend to be a Blue Team SPARTAN and take the hit.

"Oh well," he said, grinning again. "Maybe some sexy girl will nurse me back to health."

With that, he raised his arms and grinned, and a second later Keitaro impacted him at terminal velocity, leaving the mysterious man crushed into the bottom of the resultant crater, with Keitaro laying across him, both men seeming to have swirlies replacing their eyes.

A few moments after impact, Naru landed gracefully in a crouch at the perimeter of the resultant crater, folding her wings up against her back as she gingerly stepped down into the hole, crouching down again at Keitaro's side.

"Keitaro, are you okay?" she asked, genuine concern evident in her voice and features. She _still_ hadn't noticed that her wings were about the best clothing she had on hand at the moment.

The Hinata kanrinin recovered almost immediately, blinking up at Naru from his inverted position. "Huh? Yeah I'm?" And then he noticed her current state of dress, or the lack thereof. A veritable geyser of blood erupted from his nose, launching him off the mysterious man to land plastered against the edge of the crater.

Confused at this reaction, Naru looked down at herself, and _finally_ realized that she'd jumped out of the hot springs without even grabbing a towel. Her face as red as a stop light, she quickly crouched as low as she could, covering her chest with her arms and enfolding her wings around herself in order to cover everything she could.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was making their way down the steps; all of them coming to see the spectator sport that was Naru throttling Keitaro, something that hadn't been seen at the apartments in nearly a year. Seno, the first to the scene, looked into the crater, noticed the unknown man lying at the bottom of it, and intoned in a deep voice reminiscent of the Halo announcer, "Double kill."

Of course, the man wasn't stunned for long. He stood up, dusted himself off, and casually walked out of the crater. The first thing he noticed was the gaggle of girls that had arrived at the scene. He paused, looking each one over with a critical eye, and then brushed his ponytail over his shoulder so that not a hair was disturbed. And then he began to assess the girls, and group them into archetypes based on his vast knowledge of women and equally-vast collection of harem anime.

He pointed at Motoko. "Tense, man-fearing overtraditional holy swordswoman," he pronounced.

Her right eye twitched in response.

"Well, it used to be true," Seno commented, which earned him a backhanded smack across the mouth from his wife. "Ow."

The man turned to Kaolla, and did a double take. _The princess, here?_ he thought in shock. Clearing his throat, he checked to make sure that the headband was still covering his forehead, then leveled his finger at her. "Undersized mad scientist. You could also double as the exotic child bride."

Kaolla grinned up at him, then held up a peace sign. "You got it!" she exclaimed, then paused. "Is a bride tasty?"

"A bride is not tasty," he responded, rubbing the back of his head and returning the peace sign. "In fact, if she is eaten, a bride would obj... Hmm, scratch that, she'd probably like it."

This resulting in a blushing facepalm from Motoko, and a self-satisfied grin from Seno.

Next he turned to Shinobu, and shook his head. _Too easy_. "Lolicon," he announced. "Innocent, blushing, cute, good cook. Wife wannabe."

Shinobu looked stricken by this pronouncement, her face reddening as her eyes watered.

"I'm sorry, cutie. You'll make a wonderful wife someday, but right now you're still a loli. But a cute one." Then he handed her a rose that he produced from seemingly nowhere, causing Motoko to briefly wonder if he shopped at the same Bag of Holding store that her sister did.

He paused at Kitsune, and seemed to consider her for a moment before smacking a fist into his open palm. "Gin-n-tonic futon brain," he said. "Mischievous mother figure. Probably a strong drinker."

Grinning slyly, Kitsune regarded him with one eye open. "You're quick, sugah," she replied. "A little too...mature? For my tastes, though."

"Owned," remarked Seno.

"And that's too bad, Fox-Face. I could've shown you a really good time. In many, many ways." He gave her a lecherous, seductive smile. "An older woman and a man with experience always make glorious music."

"Counter-owned," Seno said.

He next looked to Mutsumi and opened his mouth, then closed it. He scratched his head, frowned, then opened his mouth again and waggled a finger at her. "You need to stay away from white-haired men with really long swords."

"Oh, my," Mutsumi said, sounding about as concerned as the man on the moon. "You wouldn't happen to have a really long sword, would you?"

For a moment, he stared at her in abject shock. Then he recovered, smiled warmly, and said, "If you were any less sweet, miss, I'd give you a very different answer to that question. But as it stands, the answer I give you will be in proper context, and it's a resounding 'No.' I have a few swords in my collection, though."

Lastly, he turned to Naru. Pushing away his personal distaste for angels, he took a good look at her feminine body, and thought to himself, _Focus on the body, man. The body, the figure. Categorize properly... She's the love interest of the main character... Such wonderful curves, must say that..._

And when he finally makes his comment to her, it comes in the most understated, totally cool, calm voice as he points at her. "You are the largest-breasted unidentified flying object I've ever seen."

For a full minute following that statement, there was complete and utter silence. Then it was broken by the sound of uproarious laughter coming from the resident swordsman, who happened to be rolling around on the ground as well. Various other reactions included Motoko's blank stare, Kaolla's confused look, Shinobu's teary eyes, Kitsune's leering, Mutsumi's blank expression, Keitaro's widened eyes, and Naru's occasional twitching in place.

And then she wasn't there anymore. Keitaro let out a surprised noise and looked around in confusion at her sudden disappearance, but the rest of the tenants had seen this before, when Haitani had been unfortunate enough to draw her ire, and had been the first victim of the Naru Punch Mark II, Hypersonic Angelic Form. And it looked like this oddball was going to be victim number two.

In the next instant, however, Naru reappeared several feet behind the man, wearing a shocked expression, and his only apparent reaction to her attack was his hair slightly windswept. No, correction. A few clipped hairs floated down by him and he briefly flicked his eyes her way.

"I...missed...?" she was uttering in complete shock. She had never managed to land a standard Naru Punch on Seno after the first time she'd hit him, but she didn't think it possible that somebody could dodge her second-form strike, as fast as it was. She began to replay the events in her mind.

As she came at him, she saw his pupils dilate as he somehow, impossibly, managed to conform to her speed. Then time seemed to freeze, and in that instant she had felt a single touch on her shoulder, and heard a single word whispered into her ear: "Tag."

And then she was past him, left with the stunning realization that this man was definitely not what he seemed, especially since he evaded her fastest and most powerful attack with apparent ease. She turned back to stare at him uneasily, but there was definitely a newfound respect in her eyes.

For his part, the man was largely ignoring her, his attention on the resident swordsman. "And you!" he said. "I like you. You remind me of myself, except slightly less tall. And less tan. And, uh, with less car?"

"My ride's up there," Seno answered, jerking his thumb back to the landing entranceway of the apartments, where his red-and-silver ZX-6R Kawasaki Ninja sat beside Motoko's matching cobalt blue-and-black Ninja. "The red one. Blue one's hers." He nodded his head toward Motoko.

The man snickered. "Your wife has the bigger bike?"

"Bigger is easier to control," Motoko answered simply. "I'm still a novice rider."

"Ah," he said. "I see. A wise decision." And then something seemed to have occurred to him. "Well, I'm sorry if I've been rude. I'm Sabashii Kokuei. I actually wanted to come and have a nice vacation at a nice resort, but it looks like other than husbands, there aren't any men here." He looked to Keitaro, and motioned to Naru. "You _are_ the young woman's husband, are you not? You seem too friendly with each other to be just friends or a normal cute couple."

As he said this, he smiled a disarming smile at Naru. That one that spoke volumes, as if to say 'I am a sex god, and you would forget every other man's name in about two seconds if I got my hands on you.' The same kind of smile that Kentaro was known to attempt, but fail utterly at pulling off.

Clearly, Sabashii's look would not amuse Naru. She growled low in her throat, tightly clenching her striking fist, but at least having the mental wherewithal to keep her wings folded around her body to cover her nakedness.

Keitaro, of course, was totally oblivious to the meaning of his expression, and simply responded, "Uhh...No, we're...ah, not married. We're just kind of..."

Shaking his head, Seno walked up behind the pair and smacked Keitaro on the back of his head, then turned to glare at Sabashii. "Hey, I went to a lot of trouble to hook these two up, and even more trouble to keep 'em together, ya little ratshit. So don't muck with it or I'll have to resort to forc-"

As he had been saying that, he'd dropped his left hand to his waist in order to thumb-flick his sword out the way Motoko had done to Keitaro when he'd first shown up. But he'd left his sword in his room, and was just now remembering that as he looked at the empty space where his sword normally would reside. "Bugger..."

Motoko shook her head. "Your threat value without a weapon is in the negatives, you know."

"Shaddap."

"And that's what you get for trying to steal my gimmick in the first place."

Meanwhile, a few feet away from the commotion, Haruka walked out of the nearby Hinata Tea House. She stuck a lit cigarette in her mouth, then walked over to the group. "What's with all the racket over here?" she intoned, her voice a deadpan.

Darkness had long since descended upon the gathering, and now a full white moon was climbing into the sky over Sagami Bay, seeming to paint in silhouette _another_ new figure marching up the Hinata steps.

This figure was clad in form-obscuring clothing, thick veils of black with silver linings that covered the figure from head to toe, similar to the traditional burqa worn in countries that followed the Islamic faith. That marked the newcomer as a probable woman, and then slender shape of the tanned hand that grasped the rope handles of the woven bag slung over her shoulder also suggested this.

She stopped a few feet away from the group, looking around at all the commotion, and then bowed slightly. "Please excuse my intrusion, but, is this the Hinata S??" Her voice clearly marked her as female, and young at that.

Turning away from the little group that had gathered around Sabashii, Keitaro nodded to the young woman and sacratched the back of the head. "Yeah, yeah, this is Hinata House," he said.

She nodded again, and locked her eyes with Keitaro. It was definitely not the same kind of stare that Sabashii had given Naru; it was as if she were trying to look past the glasses and his bumbling nature, to see who Keitaro was on the inside. "I thank you. Are you the lord here?"

As she spoke, she dropped her bag to the steps and reached up to remove the veils. Once the veil had been completely removed, the tenants were shocked to find that the woman standing before them looked _identical_ to the adult version of Kaolla that appeared whenever the moon was red, even down to what they now recognized as MolMolian royal clothing. The differences between the two were negligible: where Kaolla's eyes were green, this woman's were blue, and her hair was a few shades darker than the young alchemist's.

"I need to speak to whomever is lord here," she continued. "I have the appropriate finances, and wish to partake of the service of a room here while I attend school."

Of course, she failed to notice that the vast majority of the people nearby had been floored by the presence of Adult Su, considering first that it was a _white_ moon, and second that Su was still in the back of their gathering. Well, everyone was floored except for Mutsumi, who remained eternally oblivious, and Su herself, who blinked for a few moments at her older counterpart, grinned widely, and then pounced, landing on the new girl's head with the standard wolf-whistle that usually happens when she does just that.

"What are you doing here, Nealla?" Su asked, shifting herself to sit on the girl's shoulders so she could lean down over her face.

The older girl, identified as Nealla, smiled as if this were not an unusual occurrence. "As I said, Princess, I wish to attend school in Japan, and decided that it would be easiest to seek lodgings in the same residence you did."

Haruka, likewise, wasn't floored. Her only reaction to the Su-clone was to take a deeper drag of her cigarette than was usual. She then proceeded to step over the twitching bodies of the rest of the tenants and stand in front of the two Su's. "Keitaro is the landlord here, but I generally handle most of the tenant finances since he's so busy with studying and upkeep on the place."

With Kaolla still sitting on her head, Nealla turned to Haruka and bowed again. "I see," she said. "How might I go about acquiring a room here?"

The end of the cigarette flared red as Haruka took a breath, then the older woman shrugged. "Room 203 is empty, so you can have that one," she said. "I'll print up a copy of the paperwork for you to fill out tomorrow, if you like. I imagine it was quite a trip from MolMol."

Nealla smiled faintly and bowed again, then retrieved her bag. "I thank you, Miss..."

"Urashima, make it Haruka." Then she turned toward Sabashii, evaluating the man closely. There was definitely more to him than met the eye, but it wasn't something she could put her finger on. But she wasn't stupid, and she didn't believe in coincidence. Some purpose or higher power had brought him here, as well as Kaolla's obvious body-double, and to Haruka that meant they were going to be needed.

Taking another deep breath, she prepared herself for the expectant backlash from her next statement. "Sabashii, you can stay here, too. We'll give you Seno's old room, 303."

Shock from all the tenants was indeed the reaction to that statement. Keitaro being the landlord was one thing; that was a binding legal matter that required him to live at the apartments. Seno? He had proven his worth as another line of defense during the Mecha-Tama crisis, and now that he and Motoko were married, there was absolutely no question. But now another new guy?

"I don't think that would be proper, Haruka," Motoko said. Her voice was even, unlike when she had first objected to Keitaro, which indicated there was actual reasoning behind her objection, rather than simply rejecting the idea outright on principle. "For one, the reputation of Hinata House as an all-girls' dormitory is already shot because Seno and Keitaro live here." There was a pause, and she hastily affixed, "Not that I am complaining, mind you. Second, while Keitaro's 'perverse acts' are a mere result of his clumsiness, and Seno never has displayed the behavior of a pervert-"

"Except in the bedroom," the swordsman interrupted.

Without missing a beat, Motoko backhanded her husband across the mouth and continued, "-this man Sabashii has openly demonstrated that he is a lecher. I do not think allowing him to stay here would be proper."

Naru's mouth worked open and shut as though she wanted to add her two cents, but she finally decided to not say anything and nod in agreement with Motoko. Haruka noticed. "Not going to give your usual tirade, Naru?"

The angelic woman shrugged sheepishly. "Motoko put it far more eloquently than I could have."

"Thank you."

Sabashii regarded the girls carefully. "Motoko, was it? And Naru? I assure you, ladies, that while it is true that you will be hard-pressed to find a more debaucherous man than myself, I am in complete and absolute control of my self, my urges, and my desires. I am more than capable of performing the perfect gentlemen to you people, and I would take this opportunity to humbly request a single chance to prove myself."

Naru and Motoko exchanged glances, then Motoko turned and gave her husband a pointed look. In response, he shook his head and pointed to the empty space at his hip where his sword would normally be. Reddening slightly, realizing she had forgotten that he had not brought the weapon with him, she turned away. "I am willing to give him a chance to prove himself."

Naru crossed her arms over her chest, which was already covered by her wings; she was almost in complete control of the necessary muscle movements required to make her wings do just about anything. "It's only fair that we give him a chance," she said in agreement, then spitted Sabashii with her fiercest glare. "But one mistake, buster, and you're out on your ass!"

The tanned man merely chuckled. "Such _language_ for one of God's chosen," he said.

--

_April 11, 2007  
Hinata, Japan  
1017 hours, local time_

A black Nissan Cedric made its way through the streets of the hot springs town on Sagami Bay, heading toward the apartment building on the hill, clearly visible from every part of town. Inside, were two men; a driver in civilian clothes and another man wearing a black overcoat over a military-cut civilian suit. The second man held a manila folder in his hands and was looking through the files therein. This man was no kid; he looked to be about twenty-five.

"Seno and Motoko Nakakami," he uttered, glancing over the files gathered on the couple. "You guys have quite the file on them."

He glanced up, expecting a comment of some kind, but the driver merely nodded. Shrugging, he flipped to the next file. "Su Kaolla, er... Kaolla Su. Princess of MolMol, eh? Last time the CIA got close to her, she loosed some kind of mechanized turtles on the sniper team."

"_Snipers_!?" the driver choked, nearly plowing into the side of a building. "You were going to assassinate the princess?"

The foreign man laughed. "Of course not. The USMC was simply the closest on hand to help build up her dossier. My superior wanted a more appropriate team sent in, but the Marines were overconfident in their scouts."

The driver likewise chuckled, albeit nervously. "Well, sir, what you're holding there is what we've managed to covertly build up on them since the incident in Pararakelse last August. Most of it came as a result of that incident back at Halloween."

"Incident?"

"The residents of the apartments parlayed it off as a malfunction on the part of some mechanical monsters they had created for a haunted house, but we managed to sneak in a covert team to observe their actions and these 'mechanical monsters' they had been fighting off. There was something seriously wrong going on on top of that hill that night."

"I see," the man said, closing the manila folder. "Well, I hope I'll be able to handle them."

"You're Department 13," the driver replied, off-hand. "You guys are on par with the Va-"

"I'm new," the man interrupted. "Now how about we stop off at that noodle shop there, if it's allowed. I'm hungry."

--

"Are you for real about this?"

"Seno, I'm begging you, _please_ don't tell the girls about this."

Shaking his head with a heavy sigh, the swordsman dropped a pamphlet about how to get around and what sights to see in the San Francisco area onto Keitaro's desk. "Fine," he said. "So what brought this on all of a sudden? Two weeks ago you were dead-set on walking into Tokyo U hand-in-hand with Naru. Now you all of a sudden want to go to America?"

The kanrinin shrugged slightly, turning the book by its corner on the desk. "I don't know," he replied. "I just feel like I'm not going anywhere with my life. I feel like this is my chance to get out and do something worthwhile for a change."

"Sounds like you need to sort your priorities. Go out and shake things up a little so you can figure out just what's important to you."

"That too, I guess. It'll be like what you did in high school, an overseas study program. It should be fun."

Seno nodded. "I enjoyed myself. But I didn't go to California. California's fuckin' crazy right now, dude, with all that shit going on about illegal immigrants and all the other political crap."

"I'm sure it won't be so bad," Keitaro said. "I'll probably be with Seta the whole time."

Shrugging, Seno turned toward the exit of Keitaro's room. "It's no sweat off my nose either way, but... you'd better tell the girls soon or there'll be hell to pay. And I'm not taking a fall for you this time, old buddy."

--

A short time later, that very Nissan pulled up at the bottom of the Hinata Apartment steps and the man stepped out, making his way directly toward the Tea House as the driver stayed back to gather the bags. On the Tea House steps, Haruka, who had been sweeping the steps, stopped to watch the man approach, puffing silently on her cigarette.

"You must be...Haruka Urashima?" the man asked.

She nodded a fraction of an inch. "You are?"

He bowed. "My name is Lorenzo Ruiz Michael Cabal," he said. At Haruka's almost-stunned expression, he hastily added, "I go by the nickname 'Jusuchin' or just 'Jusu.'"

Some spark of recognition or memory flashed in her dark eyes and she nodded again, more seriously this time. "Oh, so you're _that_ guy." Her voice took an edge. "Is there some _reason_ why the United States government is starting to think of us as a collection of freaks and monsters, why they have to send someone to spy on us?"

Lorenzo blanched slightly. "Ma'am, my assignment was already cleared-"

"That doesn't mean I have to like it," Haruka snapped. "Nor will the tenants, should they ever find out. For your sake, I pray that you either get on their good side very fast, or are very good at being a fly on the wall."

"So noted," Lorenzo said, unconsciously tugging at the collar of his suit. He nodded as though just remembering something, and continued, "I had heard that Hinata-S? is supposed to be an all-girls' dormitory...?"

Haruka chuckled. "It doesn't seem that way anymore," she replied. "You'll be the fourth guy to live here. We just got two new tenants last night, one of whom was a man. At least in your case, I've already warned the girls that you'll be the live-in groundskeeper, so they won't feel the need to complain about you."

"I thought my cover was a Tokyo U graduate student."

"Your major was never specified, was it?"

Lorenzo shook his head.

"It's East Asian horticulture and landscaping now," Haruka said with an almost-mocking smile as she turned back to the Tea House. "I suggest you start studying up." She rooted around inside for a moment, then came back out with a small envelope, which she handed to Lorenzo. "House key and your legal documents of residence," she explained. "You'll be in 202."

Accepting the package, Lorenzo bowed again and said, "I promise I will not cause any trouble."

"I'm not the one you need to worry about," Haruka replied off-hand, then went back to sweeping the steps. That simple sentence ended the conversation.

Put off slightly by Haruka's unexpected hostility, Lorenzo turned and continued up to the apartments, stepping inside the old-fashioned building. As he had been told was proper to do, he took off his shoes and left them beside the large collection of shoes near the door, then stepped up onto the main floor.

In the living room area, four figures were clustered around the TV, each of them holding an XBox controller in their hands. He recognized Kaolla Su, Seno Nakakami, and Mitsune Konno of them, but the identity of the last man eluded him; he must've been the other new male tenant that Haruka had referred to. The quartet was engaged in a vigorous multiplayer match on Halo 2. From the looks of things, and the way they were throwing tactical considerations back and forth to one another, it was apparent they were all on the same team.

"Su, you're close to the red base, right?" Seno asked.

"Yup, yup!" the princess replied.

"Okay, I'm over here near the teleporter. I want you to grab the Banshee and run some aerial recon for me. Kitsune, load up in the Warthog and see if you can draw some fire."

"That would leave you and I for fire support then, I guess," the other man said.

"You got it, Sabashii," Seno said with a grin. "Okay guys, this is the last set of kills, so let's make it impressive and really shut 'em down."

As the quartet went about with their game, Lorenzo just watched them for a while, during which time Mutsumi and Naru returned from their classes at Tokyo University. The angel and the pseudo-Ancient paused at the doorway, exchanging a skeptical glance at the presence of this man who was just _watching_ their friends play Halo.

Naru decided she would be the one to say something. Channeling holy energy to her right hand should she need to rapidly form a blade of energy, she stepped forward and called out, "Hey, who are you?"

Lorenzo spun around, his eyes widening as he realized that Naru was the source of the gathering energy he'd sensed. It felt like the energy used by the paranormal division of the Vatican, holy in nature, but the power she was exhibiting vastly overshadowed even the strongest of cardinals. Now sweating bullets, he bowed in her direction, resisting the sudden urge to prostrate and cross himself at her feet.

"I'm sorry, my name is Lorenzo Ruiz, but I go by Jusuchin," he said. "I was hired here by Miss Haruka as the new groundskeeper."

Naru immediately relaxed, dispelling the charged energy and then smiling warmly at Lorenzo. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't know. It's nice to meet you, Jusuchin, was it?"

He nodded. "Jusu works, too."

She nodded. "It was a good idea to get a groundskeeper," she said. "That'll make Keitaro's job a little easier."

The deep voice of the Halo announcer called out "_**GAME OVER**_" and the gaming quartet turned toward the entranceway, finally able to take their attention off the game. "Hey, is that the new guy Haruka told us about?" Kitsune asked.

"The Hinata seems to be getting quite popular recently," Sabashii said. "And more gender-diverse, as well. Perhaps it would not do to consider this place a girls' dormitory anymore."

Mutsumi tilted her head to the side and smiled her airy smile. "This place has always had a touch of destiny about it," she said whimsically. "Perhaps it's drawing in the people who are sensitive to it."

"But I thought you said that _we_ were the last of the Chosen Heroes who were unaware of our destiny," Naru said, looking sideways at her friend.

"Did I?" Mutsumi asked. "Oops, silly me."

Cue collective faceplant.

Kitsune was the first to recover, standing up with a shaky grin in place. "Well, I guess we'll have to be lookin' out for more heroes to show up at our door. In the meantime, since we got all these new people livin' here now, we need to throw a good old-fashioned Hinata welcome party!"

--

_April 11, 2007  
MolMolian Royal Palace  
2148 hours, local time_

Darkness pervaded the wing of the royal palace that contained the sleeping chambers of the royal family, almost a tangible thing, spreading from room to room, as though actively searching for something. Or someone.

A black mist drifted along the sandy ground, pausing up against the walls of the palace as two white-clad palace guards passed nearby. They were suitably-armed for their task, each carrying a sheathed scimitar as well as an SFAR-42 5.56x93mm battle rifle, the standard infantry weapon for the MolMolian army. Mere palace guards, as important as they were, did not rate the more _experimental_ weapons reserved for MolMol's elites.

As soon as the guards were past, the mist resumed its course as well, sliding up the wall of the palace to the third floor, where it continued up to drift along the ceiling of the outer wraparound corridor, to minimize the chances of it being seen. It could hear voices as it neared a corner, and slowed its pace to a crawl before creeping around the corner.

Down below, appearing to be on guard duty outside a particular room, were two of the vaunted MolMolian Royal Elite Guard. The two below were almost textbook examples of the Guard. The one closest to the door, who was leaning against the wall, wore his black suit immaculately, his shoes shined to a mirror's polish and not a speck of lint on him. His hands were covered by black leather fighter's gloves, and light reflected dimly from the number of earrings decorating his left ear, as well as the top of his smooth-shaven head. His eyes were hidden behind black sunglasses, but he was paying attention to his partner.

That man stood as a stark contrast to the immaculately-groomed Elite Guard. His clothes were wrinkled, shoes scuffed, suit jacket laid open, no tie, and his white shirt untucked from his pants. His unruly mop of flame red hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, and adorned by a pair of goggles resting on his forehead. He was pacing around the walkway, doing most of the speaking.

"I'm tellin' ya, it's just _creepy_, yo," he said. "All this bad stuff going on out in the desert, so bad that these crazy-lookin' guys that are just _screamin'_ not-quite-human at me show up, say some stuff to the King that spooks even _him_, and then they take off for the desert and haven't been heard from since. Isn't that just a little off?"

"I agree with you, partner," the bald man replied, his voice cool and collected. "It seems to be something that's outside even our talents, so it's best not to worry about it."

"Bad news is still bad news," the redhead said, leaning against the outer railing and staring out at the bone-white full moon. He smirked slightly; the Scarlet Moon was the princess' thing, so it was kind of fitting that the Ivory Moon was the sign of their fellow Elite Guard who served as the princess' doppelganger. "This business, it stinks of bad news for the entire kingdom, yo?"

A faint smirk crossed the bald man's lips. "If this thing decides to take a run at the royal family, it has to come through us, first. Shalua is guarding the King. With you and I watching Prince Lamba and Nealla over in Japan keeping an eye on Princess Kaolla, I think we're pretty well covered."

The redhead looked at his partner incredulously for a moment, then realized what was going on. His partner was choosing to put his faith in the skills of the MolMolian Guard, and believe that they could stop this threat should it get past the guys that went out into the desert. It was the only way to keep their sanity in situations like these.

Chuckling, he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, you're right, partner. Well, we won't be clockin' out early today."

If the mist had a mouth, it would have smiled cruelly, and probably laughed. Here they were, believing that they could safeguard the royal family from any threat that befell them, when the very threat they were concerned with was hovering over their heads. Without any further ado, the mist seeped into the room the two were guarding, approaching the figure lying flat on its back on the bed.

Once more, if the mist was capable of producing sound, it would have made a noise of satisfaction. It was none other than the crown prince, Lamba Lu, laying on the bed. The still-lit lamp on the desk nearby, and the various texts scattered about the room indicated that the prince had been researching something; the condition of the texts indicated that the subject was positively ancient.

That wasn't the mist's concern. The black, gaseous cloud began to solidify, and for the barest of instants, the cruelly-grinning figure of Kawakami Gensai was revealed in the midst of the mists, before the solidifying mist congealed into a black, gelatinous ooze on the floor. The ooze slipped and slithered up onto Lamba's bed, creeping up over his feet and up his legs, slowly covering every part of his body.

The ooze was halfway up his chest before Lamba realized anything was wrong. His eyes snapped open and he looked down to see his body covered in a black, slimy substance. As if sensing he was aware of its actions, the ooze surged forward, overtaking him at such speed that he barely had time to let out a short, bitten-off cry of shock before he was completely engulfed by the inky blackness.

Less than half a second after that sound, Lamba's door burst inwards and the two Elite Guards were running in, the redhead leading with a section of metal the length of his forearm in hand. The way the metal was designed clearly indicated it was an extendable weapon. Prepared to find a stealthy assassin attempting to take out the crown prince, the redhead drew up short, swinging his metal rod back in surprise when he saw no one else in the room besides the prince himself.

The redheaded Guard felt an impact against his rod, then heard a thud against the floor, and looked down to see his partner on the floor, his sunglasses askew, and holding his nose delicately in both gloved hands. "Uhh, oops?" the redhead remarked.

"Naaix, Xiaan, what is the meaning of this intrusion?" Lamba asked quietly.

The redhead, Naaix, fiddled with his rod between his hands. "Uhh, well, we heard you shout, Your Highness, and thought that an assassin had come for you."

Lamba nodded in their direction. "Your dedication to your duty, as well as your attentiveness, are commendable," he said. "However, it was merely a bad dream. My apologies for worrying you."

Xiaan stood back up and adjusted his sunglasses, fairly certain that his partner hadn't managed to break his nose again. "No apologies are necessary, Your Highness," he said. "As you said, we are merely doing our job."

The two bowed, and then retreated from Lamba's room, shutting the door behind them.

Once they were gone, Lamba grinned cruelly. "Ignorant fools..."

--

_April 11, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1936 hours, local time_

As Lorenzo, Nealla, and Sabashii were well on their way to learning, _nobody_ threw parties like the Hinata crew. Su, Seno, Kitsune, Keitaro, and Naru had put their heads together to produce the following obscene array of video gaming entertainment: two additional televisions, both thirty-two inches or better, three XBoxes, two XBox 360s, four PS2s, a Nintendo Wii, and a PS3. There were quite literally more systems than there were available televisions.

Seeing this, Sabashii, Nealla, and Lorenzo had all gone up to their rooms to retrieve their own television sets, and then the doling out of games and systems to TVs had begun. The main living room TV was secured to Kitsune's XBox 360 for the purpose of playing Halo 2. She, Seno, and Lorenzo had immediately dived into an XBox Live game. Su's TV was hooked up to her PlayStation 2, which was set far enough to one side where there was plenty of room for two DDR pads to be attached. To the surprise of most of the tenants, Motoko was the first to this game, and even further surprised the crew by challenging the notoriously-limtlessly-energetic Su to a set of songs.

Near the stairway up to the upper floors, a third TV had gotten Su's Wii, and Keitaro was currently playing _Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess_ on it. Naru was watching him play, impressed that he could handle the physical game so well.

Shinobu, Haruka, and Mutsumi were spread out amongst the couches and chairs, playing the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ version of Life and munching the various finger foods that had been bought for the party. Sabashii was leaning back in a recliner, able to look up and see what any of the various party groups were doing, but he was focused on a device he was tinkering with in his lap.

A moment later, the relatively-controlled chaos of the party was interrupted by a loud crashing sound from out on the main landing. The crew turned to look out the front door and see that a white van was standing on its nose on the landing, having just barely missed Sabashii's car and the two motorcycles parked out there.

"It's the Setamobile!" Seno exclaimed.

"Setamobile?" Sabashii snickered. "I'll have to remember that."

After a few moments, the front door opened and Seta wandered in, bleeding profusely from a gash somewhere on his head. He had a large case in his arms. "Hey, guys," he greeted. "I heard you were having a party, so I thought I'd bring some stuff for you."

He set the case down and opened it, revealing several large bottles of sake. "A friend of mine got this for me. It supposedly dates back to the Sengoku era and is said to have come from the stores of Nobunaga Oda himself."

Even Kitsune, her hand already on one of the bottles, paused. "Are you sure it's okay to be givin' us this?" she asked.

Seta waved it off. "It'll be fine. Drink up, everybody!"

As glasses were being passed around to everyone, even Shinobu, another commotion started up as Su bounded down the stairs carrying audio equipment obviously reserved for karaoke. Motoko saw the hyperactive girl coming down the stairs, and blinked. "Wait, aren't you still supposed to be..." Then she turned and gave the 'Su' that she was playing DDR with a closer look. It turned out that she had actually been playing with Nealla that entire time.

The swordswoman glared at the doppelganger. "This is going to take some getting used to..." she pronounced, helping herself to a generous glass of sake.

Nealla merely smiled innocently and then walked away from the DDR setup, picking up a glass of sake before sitting in the closest chair to Sabashii and his tinkering.

"It's time for karaoke!" Su proclaimed, dropping the makeshift stage into the largest clear spot on the floor, then turned to grin at her friends. "Who's going to go first?"

"I will!" Mutsumi exclaimed. Her cheeks were already a rosy red, and she'd only had one glass of sake. Standing up unsteadily, she accepted the book of songs from Su and began to thumb through it. After a moment, she handed the book back to Su and pointed to the page she had turned to. "I want that one."

"Comin' right up!" Su affirmed, then turned to her audio equipment.

Somehow, when nobody had been paying attention, Su had managed to transform that clear spot into an appreciable karaoke stage, complete with a raised platform on which to stand, a microphone stand, the TV on which the lyrics were displayed, and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Party lights had been set up to either side, flashing varied red and green and blue and all the colors in between over the stage.

Mutsumi took her place on the stage and picked up the microphone, tapping it with her right index finger to ensure that it was on. A burst of static blasted the audience from the massive speakers that had likewise seemed to appear as if out of null-space. The ditzy Okinawan smiled apologetically to her friends.

"Are you ready, Mutsumi?" Su asked. "This song doesn't have an instrumental lead-up, you know."

Mutsumi nodded. "I know. I like this song, and know it quite well."

Su nodded in reply and began the program. Almost immediately, Mutsumi began to sing.

_Hohoemu namida michibiku kaze wa  
yasashii nioi nareta nukumori  
Ima kagiri aru sekai to kuusai no hate ni  
Kanjou taba ne hitomi wa nani o mitsukeru darou_

As the light-techno instrumentals of the song took the center stage during a vocal pause, all of the other tenants quietly paused their games and took any form of seating they could, turning their attention toward the makeshift stage.

_Mienai hoshi kokoro nokoshi saten no sora e to  
Kikoenu you ni mienu you ni chiisaku hakisuteta  
Ima naraba mabayui kako utte  
Yuganda asa mo tsumetai yoru mo genseki ni kaeru_

A wide, dazzling smile appeared on Mutsumi's face as she took a breath before diving into the refrain, as if the intoxicating affects of the sake she'd consumed had all but vanished.

_Utsuro na namida yurusareru nara  
kono mama zutto mamoraretetai  
Ima hosoi hari ga hitotsu toki oikoshite iku  
Yagate bokura no ue ni mo asahi wa noboru darou_

The instrumentals once again took over, allowing Mutsumi time to catch her breath and bow in response to the appreciative shouts and cheers from her friends. To prove the fact that she had earlier said she knew the song very well, she spun the lyric screen on its axis so that the audience could read and sing along as well. Naru, also a fan of the song, was the first to join in.

_Shikakui sora kondo koso wa tsubusarenai you ni  
Ryoute nobashi chiisana sekai honki de oyoideta_

Unheard over Mutsumi's singing and the music itself, Kitsune shouted something to Naru, who shouted something in reply, then the two stood up and jumped up onto the stage, joining Mutsumi in the song to provide the background vocals that the pseudo-Ancient was missing on her own.

_Ima dake wa tomedonaku nagareru  
Yowasa no shirushi sono netsu dake o kanjitetai no ni_

_Yumemiru namida hontou wa zutto  
kodomo no mama de osanai mama de  
Futtoyogiru kuuhaku wa kotoba de umeyou  
Purasutikku no sekai ni asahi ga wa o egaku_

More cheering and whistling came from the crew remaining in the audience, which quickly fell quiet as the music of the song dove down for a lower, 'quiet' sequence, before rising back up again for the finale.

_Temaneku namida torawareru kara  
kasanaru mae ni koko de sayonara  
Mou ii wake wa iranai senaka de furueta  
Sotto hiraita mabuta ni asahi wa michiru darou_

With that, the vocal part of the song was over, though the music itself continued for another half a minute, barely audible over the cheering of everyone else in the room. Even the usually-stoic Haruka was smiling genuinely and applauding the girls' talents. Though with Naru it was to be expected; she hadn't had a run as the idol girl of Hinata for no reason, after all.

As the trio stepped down and accepted a round of drinks offered to them, Sabashii picked up the song book and flipped through it. "If you do not mind, I will take the next song," he said aloud. To himself, he quietly said, "I wonder if it's in here..."

"That was a kickass song there, Mutsumi," Seno was saying. "I heard it before as the background tune from an AMV for Armored Core 4, if I'm not mistaken."

"I like it," Mutsumi replied, her quiet, warm voice underscoring her living similarity to Aeris. "Somehow, I think it suits all of us."

Any reply Seno would have made was intercepted as Motoko calmly seated herself on his lap, took his face in both hands, and kissed him as though there was no one else in the room. The swordsman, surprised as he was by his wife's sudden desire for intimacy, managed to return the sentiment while slipping his arms around her waist.

"Ara ara, it's nice to see that they love each other so much," Mutsumi said nonchalantly, as though the sight of the swords-couple making out on the couch was the most natural thing in the world.

Naru, sitting next to Mutsumi, had recoiled slightly. "Wow, so much for her claiming that they keep their nookie behind closed doors," she muttered.

Then she felt something poking against her chest, and looked down to see Keitaro's right hand poking her breast from the side. She looked over to see his slack-jawed expression at Seno and Motoko's antics, then rolled her eyes and slapped her boyfriend's hand. "I'm not _that_ drunk, Keitaro," she teased.

Well, _that_ certainly got his attention. He recoiled away from her, rubbing his slapped hand. "Hey, just what do you mean by that?" he asked.

Grinning, Naru leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm just picking on you," she said. Then she gave him a frank stare. "But I mean it that I'm not drunk enough to let you have your way with me."

Keitaro reached over and wrapped his right arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him, laying her head against his shoulder. "You know I wouldn't do that, Naru," he said, reaching up his other hand and brushing a strand of hair away from her face. "I would never take advantage of you. I love you too much."

Smiling contently, Naru wrapped her arms around him and snuggled closer to the dorm manager.

Meanwhile, as Motoko leaned back from her husband for air, the swordsman fought to clear his vision and looked up at her, noting that her cheeks were as red as his buddy Jesus shirt. "Ahh, hun, how much did you have to drink?"

The Shinmeiryu heir grinned and draped herself over her husband in a manner that made Kitsune proud. "Just the one," she slurred.

"Oh, shi..." In the next instant, Seno was on his feet, the semi-conscious but still-rambunctious Motoko held in his arms. "Well, guys, as we've seen, Motoko can't hold her liquor, and she gets, shall we say..._feisty_, when she's this drunk. So I'll spare you having your fragile psyches shattered, and we'll head on up to our room now."

At the foot of the stairs, Seno paused and looked back to the others, "I suggest that every song in the next...half hour be loud as all hell. Trust me."

Silence befell the room at that remark as the pair disappeared upstairs. Shinobu and, unexpectedly, Nealla were both redder than the sake had caused them to be at that turn of events, Kitsune was grinning her usual grin, and Sabashii was visibly resisting the urge to make a snarky remark.

Instead, he stood up and handed the song book to Su. "On that note, I'll take this song, please," he said, then stepped up onto the stage and took the microphone in his hand.

When the music began, it was so quiet that it tugged at the very limits of audibility, forcing the tenants to strain their hearing to the maximum in order to hear it. And then it crew in volume, became a recurring, pulsing beat accompanied by a strange cacophany of clashing instruments.

Naru was the first to realize that it was not instruments that they heard clashing, but swords. She looked around and saw the same realization had dawned on her friends' faces. Turning back toward the stage, she could now hear the faint sound of countless voices clashing in a war cry. It was like listening to a recording of Japan's feudal era...

_**The land was then young, I was fighting for it like everyone.  
Ready to die for the cause, for my King, for my Lord.**_

Sabashii's voice burst out completely unexpectedly, accompanied by the harder rock music of the song, such to the point that the tenants recoiled from the sudden noise. They did not expect him to choose a song that had English lyrics, so only Seta, Haruka, Keitaro, Naru, Mutsumi, and Nealla could understand the words. The first verse had been lost upon them as they forced themselves to listen in a language other than their native Japanese.

_**You were my reason to live, to fight another day.  
You were the only one for me, and you were only for me.**_

_**Another year I would be gone.  
The war was leading us so far apart.  
I built a house to keep you there.  
Waiting for me, waiting...**_

The majority of the tenants who understood the lyrics knew right away that this song was not what you would consider a happy one, and even the English-ignorant Su, Shinobu, and Kitsune could easily pick up on the emotion riding through Sabashii's words. It was almost as if he was singing about a personal life experience.

_**No one remembers my face nor my name,  
In a dream, I'd stay here forever.  
Headstone on my grave, words carved in vain...  
All these wounds only heal when I'm home.**_

_**The Taste of their blood in my mouth, and the scent of victory.  
Scarred my soul for life, this man was not me.**_

_**Love is a game for the weak to play, they said.  
I loved and love made me many times stronger.**_

Mutsumi, always the most empathic of the group, was the first to fail in holding back her tears. The emotion and pain in Sabashii's voice clawed at all their hearts, and it was only a matter of time before Mutsumi pressed her right hand against her mouth, barely cutting off a sob that was threatening to escape her, as tears began to stream down her cheeks.

_**Another year I would be gone.  
The war was leading us so far apart.  
I built a house to keep you there.  
Waiting for me, waiting...**_

_**No one remembers my face nor my name,  
In a dream, I'd stay here forever.  
Headstone on my grave, words carved in vain...  
All these wounds only heal when I'm home.**_

_**"Everything ends...Everything dies...  
Now I know the Legends only lived in his lies"**_

_**My long and winding road, river and trees by the hills we lived on.  
The ruins of my life I find, a signet ring on the ashes, I know my Lord betrayed me,  
my reason to live was taken away.  
I carry my loved one to the hills we loved, for the last time...**_

By now, there wasn't a dry eye in the living room; even Haruka was turned away from the scene, swiping furiously at her eyes in a heroic attempt to maintain her stoic reputation. Seta merely stood leaning against a support pillar nearby, a serious expression on his face. The professor-cum-archaeologist-cum-martial artist knew the sort of pain that Sabashii was singing with. It was something he lived as well.

_**I close your eyes, kiss you goodbye.  
The only one who ever loved me.  
I'm crushed inside, darling, my life...It shall end here..**_

At this, Keitaro reached out blindly, his vision blurred by tears, and unintentionally groped Naru's leg, trying to find her hand. Understanding his intent, she reached both her hands out, also groping blindly until she found Keitaro's hand, which she then clasped in both of her hands and squeezed tightly.

_**Headstone on your grave, words carved in vain...Now the darkness covers me...**_


	13. Zen and the Art of Coming Out

"_It was no fun that Keitaro was leaving."_  
- Kaolla Su; 'From MolMol with Love'

**Chapter XII:  
Zen and the Art of Coming Out**

_April 12, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1103 hours, local time_

"_...In spite of increasing global opposition to the war in Iraq, King Su of MolMol continues to express support for the ongoing US presence in the Middle East, stating that, quote, 'The policy of President Bush that the terrorists must be engaged on their own soil rather than be allowed to wreak havoc in American cities is the correct one.' When questioned on his country's willingness to send its own forces to Iraq, the king declined further comment, citing that the operational policies of the US military and the MolMolian military are too dissimilar to allow for effective coordination in combat."_

Furrowing her brow, Kitsune leaned her head back over the couch she was reclining on just in time to spot Kaolla sneaking out of the kitchen with a bushel of bananas in her arms. "Hey, Su!" she called out, startling the MolMolian princess. "Just what does your dad mean when he says that?"

Recovering quickly, Kaolla leaped from where she had been standing to land seated on the couch next to Kitsune, having plucked a banana from the bunch midway and already consumed half of it. "Hey, I thought I was the one that was supposed to have super agility," Kitsune said sourly, referring to her 'heroic class.'

Kaolla tilted her head to one side. "It's just something that comes to me naturally, I guess," she said, then stuffed the rest of the banana in her mouth and looked at the TV. "Now what were ya talking' about?"

"Lady on the news was talkin' about your country, and how the king said that the MolMolian military wouldn't work too well together with the American military," Kitsune explained.

"Oh, that's right," Kaolla said, nodding. "The Americans rely far too much on their advanced military technology in a battlefield. While there's nothing wrong with that perspective, the military of my country uses a combination of advanced technology and magical prowess. It's why such a small military is so effective, but it also means that we really can't send anybody to help in other areas of the world."

Kitsune chuckled and crossed her arms over her chest. "I guess the rest of the world's not too keen on subscribing to magic of any kind, huh?" she mused. "Even after half a year, I'm still having some trouble getting used to it, myself. But with all the stuff that we can all do now, it's kinda crazy."

"Yep, yep!" Kaolla remarked, then jumped up and dashed up the stairs toward her room, leaving Kitsune to flip through the channels on the television, looking for a decent soap opera.

After a moment, she stopped flipping channels and held up the slip of paper Keitaro had given her that morning, a "Gift Certificate for One Free Request." He'd given them out to everyone, even Nealla, Sabashii, and Lorenzo. "What's the big idea givin' us these, Keitaro?" she asked the air, staring at the gift certificate with both eyes open.

--

_April 12, 2007  
Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan  
1110 hours, local time_

"So, part-timer..." Seta said, looking up from the book he had been reading. "You've finally made up your mind, have you?"

Motioning to the side with a nod, Seta and Keitaro started to wander across the campus in the general direction of the cafeteria. "I won't lie," the archaeologist continued. "It's a remarkably hard exam. Of the forty people who qualify for it, only six will get to go."

"Ouch," Keitaro said, rubbing the back of his head. "Sounds hard. On the off-chance that I'm one of the lucky six, I'll be working with you, won't I?"

The archaeologist professor nodded. "So, have you told everyone at Hinata-S? yet?"

Again, this was cause for the Tokyo U student to rub his head. "Well, Seno knows because he caught me with all those information books," he replied. "Other than that, it's sort of hard to break the news. I'm working on it, though."

"You should probably tell them sometime soon," Seta said, taking his lit cigarette out of his mouth. "If not, you might want to lull them into a good mood by issuing them a 'Do anything you want' gift certificate before spilling the beans."

Needless to say, Keitaro was floored by the extreme coincidence there, then he laughed. "That's exactly what I did!"

Seta laughed as well. "Ooh, then great minds do think alike!"

Unbeknownst to Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber, Naru and Mutsumi were just passing by at that time, and Naru happened to overhear the last snippits of their conversation. While Mutsumi was rambling on about what she was going to have for lunch, Naru wondered, _What are those two doing?_

--

_April 12, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1317 hours_

A lazy afternoon had descended upon the apartments. Kitsune had actually gotten off the couch for a change, and was in Su's room seeing about anything the technological genius could do to whip her up some good weapons to use. Lorenzo was up on the roof of the building; he'd set up a target thrower there and was polishing his marksmanship skills with his weapon of choice, a specially-modified M14 carbine.

In Room 302, there was a rare silence, as all the electronic entertainment systems were off and the lights were out. Seno was asleep on the futon, turned to face the wall. Beside him, Motoko sat up and ran a hand through her disheveled hair, then stood up and padded softly to the door, slipping out and moving down the hall toward the kitchen for a drink.

Next door, in Seno's old room, Sabashii was adding the finishing touches to his room. As had been seen with both Kaolla and her sister Amalla, Sabashii seemed to share that MolMolian capacity to turn a set amount of space into a dimensional nightmare. Various eyecandy posters of assorted anime girls and pop stars adorned the walls, along with the man's impressive collection of weapons, all properly cataloged and kept within their display cases. He had stowed the futon in the closet in favor of a Western-style four-post bed of Gothic Victorian make, complete with a mirror set above it, black metal frame, and curtains. And to top it all off, he had a love swing dangling from the ceiling, and various bondage equipment scattered across the room.

One floor down, in Room 203, Nealla sat perched on her windowsill, looking out over the scenic view of Hinata Onsen and Sagami Bay beyond. Behind her, her room was a faithful recreation of MolMol's jungles, much the way Kaolla's was. The computer lab area that was Kaolla's trademark was absent; its de facto replacement being a harem-style bed with a variety of cushions of differing sizes and shapes, set beside a dipping pool both deep and large enough to function as both a mirror and soaking pond.

Turning away from the world outside her room, she lifted her right hand, in which she held the free gift coupon that Keitaro had given her. To put it frankly, she was confused by the significance of the thing, and why he had decided to give her one. She hadn't had any ideas of what she could use it for, but figured that she would know what to use it for when the time came.

She lowered the coupon and glanced inward at her redecorated room. "It'll never quite be home," she said quietly as she climbed down from the window, closed the curtain, and moved deeper into her room.

Next door, in Keitaro's room, Shinobu was moving about the room, tidying up. It was that period of downtime between lunch and gathering the laundry, and with nothing better to do, she decided that she would take some time to clean up the rooms of the tenants that were currently out. And being that Naru and Keitaro were pretty much the only ones fitting in that category, she figured she'd start with Keitaro's room first. She was hardly in the room for five minutes before her shriek echoed throughout the otherwise-quiet building.

Upstairs, Sabashii looked up from oiling a Middle Ages European waraxe upon hearing the shriek. _A girl is screaming and I have nothing to do with it?_ he mused. _That's a problem._ Turning the waraxe to a battle-ready grip, he stormed out of his room and toward the stairs.

Seno was likewise immediately wakened by the sound, in time to look up and see the barechested Sabashii barreling past his door brandishing a waraxe. Without missing a beat, his left hand shot over to grab Shinaijou from its place on the nightstand next to him, then ran directly to the outside railing, leapt over it, and grabbed the bottom rail to pivot himself down and into the second floor hallway.

The closest to the scene was Motoko, who was making her way back up from the kitchen. Despite this, she didn't manage to get into the room before Sabashii, but she was just as prepared as the new tenant and her husband. "Shinobu, what's going on?" she asked, her hands glowing with ki as her eyes flicked about the room, looking for the source of Shinobu's scream.

Seno landed on the second floor at that moment and backed into the room, his left hand holding his sword out to the side with his right hand on the hilt, guarding against a potential attack from the rear.

Shinobu, meanwhile, hadn't screamed due to any sort of attacker or thief or anything like that. She had been cleaning Keitaro's room and a pile of books had fallen out of the closet on her. That had been the cause of her shriek as she sat there on the floor, rubbing her head painfully with one eye closed.

Then she looked up and noticed the bloody war party that had entered the room, feeling the heat rise to her face. Quickly, she waved her hands out in front of her. "No, guys, I'm okay!" she explained. "I was cleaning up Keitaro's room and all these books fell out of the closet on me."

Releasing her gathered ki, Motoko crossed the room to pick up some of the books, half expecting them to be adult in nature. But to her great surprise, every last one of them was about the United States, most of them travel guides and the like focusing on the West Coast, particularly California.

"American information booklets? How odd that Keitaro would have these..."

Behind her, Seno looked back, caught sight of the very travel guides he'd caught Keitaro with himself, and swore silently.

Sabashii blinked at the cause of the commotion, upended the axe to rest with its blade-end on the ground, and then leaned against the shaft. "Traveling to the Americas is pretty expensive unless you're going on a grant or something," he said, pulling one of the books from the pile and looking it over. "Depending on where you're staying, the cost of living is pretty high too. California and Las Vegas are the worst; but that's because there are a lot of tourists depending on what part of California you go to, and Vegas is always crowded, even in the off seasons. Are you okay, Shinobu?"

Shinobu smiled warmly at Sabashii and nodded, then hopped back up to her feet and started to gather up the information books. "I'm okay," she said. "Just took a little bump on my head. I'll put these back."

Seno nodded emphatically in agreement to Sabashii's statement. "Tell me about it. I was staying in northwest Florida when I went, so it was pretty cheap, but still, if I hadn't gone on that exchange program, _and_ been lucky enough to have relatives there on my mom's side to stay with, I'd have been up shi-" He broke off suddenly, remembering Shinobu's presence in the room. "Err, I'd have been up the creek."

Motoko, holding the booklet that read 'Travel Tips for Central California', got a funny feeling, and turned to look at her husband, who seemed rather nervous. "Seno, you wouldn't happen to know why Keitaro has these books, do you?"

He blanched. "Me? Uhh, no, what are you talking about? Why would I know anything about-"

He was interrupted by a loud cracking sound coming from his sword, the sound one would expect if someone had taken a blade and used a hammer and chisel to split it down the middle.

Scowling, beginning to emit an extremely-pissed aura, Motoko crossed the room to stand before her husband, looked him dead in the eye, and then reared back and socked him directly in his left eye. The swordsman went down and didn't get up. "Lie to me, will you?" she growled.

Sabashii smirked. "Nice hit, Kendo Girl," he said.

The swordswoman chuckled. "It's been a while since I've been called _that_," she said, leaning down to pull her husband up off the floor and drape him over her shoulders. "Let's go. We're going to go downstairs and wait for Keitaro to show up. Shinobu, could you get the books?"

--

_Two hours later..._

"Oh man, I ended up talking to Seta forever," Keitaro mused to himself as he crested the last steps leading up to the apartments. "Seta does have a point about 'fessing up as soon as possible. It'd be a bloodbath if anyone finds out about my plans."

Sliding open the front door, he wasn't surprised to find nobody in the immediate area; at this time of day, most of his surrogate family were off doing their own thing. So he thought nothing of continuing his personal conversation as he pulled off his shoes and left them by the door. "Especially Naru," he said, then shuddered. "Man, if she found out, I'd get skipped straight past checking in at the Pearly Gates, and she'd send me right to Hell!"

As he entered the main sitting area, he found everyone was gathered in the living room. Shinobu stood behind the couch with Tama perched on her head. Kitsune was beside the couch, and Nealla was sitting on the arm of the couch near her. Seno and Su were playing Halo, and Seno appeared to be losing rather badly. Sabashii and Lorenzo were seated on one of the other couches.

Motoko, standing by the coffee table in her usual hakama and gi, pointed toward the couch. "Urashima, you might want to sit down."

The kanrinin winced. It was _never_ good when Motoko used his surname to refer to him. Without protesting, he quickly made his way over to the exact spot that she pointed to and seated himself, then rubbed the back of his head nervously. "What's up, Motoko?" he asked. "You want to use me as your sword practice guinea pig, right?"

She shook her head once, then pointed to the surface of the coffee table. "What are these?" she asked.

"What are what?"

"Your damn books," Seno called over his shoulder, his attention focused on his completely out-of-character failure to snipe the opposing players. "The ones that Motoko _hit_ me over."

"She _hit_ you?" Keitaro repeated, dumbfounded.

Turning back as his blue-armored SPARTAN was introduced to a 105mm rocket, Seno pointed to his swollen left eye. "Knocked me for a damn loop, boyo," he confirmed. "Last time I ever try to cover for your ass."

"Don't change the subject," Motoko said, picking up the 'Travel Tips for Central California' book and dropping it in Keitaro's lap. "Why do you have these travel books?"

"Crap!" Keitaro exclaimed.

In an instant, Motoko had moved behind the landlord and caught him in a textbook sleeper hold. "Shinobu found them while she was cleaning your room," she said, beginning to apply pressure to the hold. "Confess! What are you hiding from us? Confess your sins!"

"Let's be reasonable!" Keitaro shouted, panicking. "I wasn't hiding anything from you, I swear!"

"Then why suddenly hand out gift certificates with an expiration date?" Nealla asked calmly, holding her ticket between the first two fingers of her right hand.

"Sempai, are you leaving and not telling us?" Shinobu asked, panic written all across her face.

"I know you had mentioned studying abroad before," Kitsune said, "but wasn't that for _after_ you had graduated?"

"Tell us the _truth_, Urashima," Motoko ordered, scribbling something on her own certificate. "If you want a formal request, then I believe _this_ entitles me to hear the truth from you, does it not?"

She tossed her certificate onto his lap, the simple phrase "Tell the truth!" written boldly on its face.

Keitaro picked up the slip of paper, then closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, everyone," he said. "I should've at least talked it over with you guys first." He calmly set the certificate down on the coffee table, then looked up at his tenants. "You see, I was hoping to go with Seta to the United States before this month was up."

He paused for a moment, waiting for the inevitable backlash, but Motoko, Kaolla, Shinobu, and Kitsune were stunned into silence. Seno continued to play Halo, and Sabashii and Nealla just watched calmly, unconcerned either way. Lorenzo looked righteously confused.

"Bad news is," he continued, "there's a selection test next week that determines who'll get to go. My chances are slim, but if I do happen to pass, then I'll leave almost immediately." For a moment, he considered telling them about the classes he'd be taking at the University of California about South Pacific Archaeology, but decided that information was irrelevant.

Shinobu was the first to overcome her shock and step forward. "You're going to be studying abroad but... Does that mean you're going to be gone for a whole _week_!?"

Cue faceplant.

"Shinobu dear, that's called a vacation," Keitaro said, feeling himself sweating. "What I'm talking about is something different." He leaned back and looked at the other tenants. "I would live with a family in the states, which means I'll be learning the language also. I'll probably be gone for at least half a year, or more likely a whole year."

"No!" Shinobu shrieked, throwing herself bodily at Keitaro and clinging tightly to him. "My high school entrance exams are coming up! And if you're gone, sempai, then I... I don't know how I'll manage!"

"Shinobu, you'll do fine," the landlord said, patting her comfortingly on the head. "Your grades have been improving consistently and-"

"That was just a fluke!" she insisted. "I still need you, sempai!"

"Yeah!" Kitsune said, clenching a fist. "Listen to her!" She crossed her arms and gave Keitaro her strongest glare. "More importantly, first you _lie_ to us about your grades and now you keep secrets from us! Looks like in the greater scheme of things, we don't mean _shit_ to you!"

With that, the fox lady turned and stormed out of the living room, heading up the stairs toward her room.

"How _dare_ you patronize us by issuing worthless gift certificates to keep us happy?" Motoko hissed. "Have you no honor?"

Motoko was hot on Kitsune's heels, the extreme aura in her anger causing the floor to shake with every step she took.

Over on the couch, Sabashii calmly looked toward Seno. "So you knew he was going to pull this, eh?" the white-haired man asked.

"Yeah," Seno replied, his attention back on the game. "On the scale of stupid shit he's done, this is up there."

"Due to the landlord's dishonorable conduct," Nealla said, coughing once to draw attention, "I motion for a show of hands to veto Keitaro's notion to study abroad. All in favor, say aye."

"Aye!" Kaolla immediately answered.

"Wait, you can't do that!" Keitaro protested.

He looked down to Shinobu, who was holding her gift certificate out to him with teary eyes. On its face were the words "I promise not to go anywhere!"

"Not you, too!"

Before anything else could be said, Shinobu took off as well, dashing into the kitchen and slamming the door behind her. Sabashii stood up from the couch and turned toward the front door, calling over his shoulder, "Seno, Nealla, Kaolla, you guys up for a movie?"

The trio all made expressions of assent, and the four of them proceeded to ninja vanish through the front door, leaving Keitaro alone in the living room with nothing but the residual anger of the tenants and a knot in his stomach.

--

_Ten minutes later, Keitaro's room_

With the light of the setting sun lighting his room with a warm amber glow, Keitaro sat at the desk in the center of his room, leaning back on his arms and watching the sun set. He wasn't paying attention to the beautiful scene before him; his thoughts were focused on the memory of the disaster that was his tenants discovering his plans.

_Looks like in the greater scheme of things, we don't mean _shit _to you!_

_Have you no honor?_

_On the scale of stupid shit he's done, this is up there._

Sighing, the former ronin sat up straight and turned his attention to the English textbook on his desk. "Best to forget about that now and start studying," he told himself, looking down at the page. "Let's see..."

But no matter how much he tried, his mind kept drifting to the hurt expression on Shinobu's face, and the righteous anger on the faces of Motoko and Kitsune, and the betrayal on Kaolla's face. _I can't concentrate!_ he thought, clenching at his hair in frustration. _Please, guys, believe me! I never meant to trick you!_

With another sigh, he reached over and picked up the certificate Shinobu had left him, looking guiltily at the tear-stained ink. "Now that Shinobu's asked me not to go, what do I do?" He sighed again. "I totally blew it, and now everybody hates me."

Suddenly, from above him, he heard a repeating pounding sound, and muffled cursing. "Huh? Are we having an earthquake?"

Without warning, the ceiling panels he had installed that morning to close the hole between his and Naru's rooms shattered, and the angelic woman herself came tumbling through, a small sledgehammer clutched in her hand, her full weight landing squarely on Keitaro's lap. The landlord let out a shriek of pain as her impact compressed his family jewels.

Recovering quickly, Naru slid off of Keitaro's lap and seated herself on the floor beside him, nervously rubbing the back of her head with her free hand. "Oops, I guess it's my turn to say sorry," she said, chuckling nervously.

"What's the big idea?" he all but shrieked, protectively clutching his privates.

"I was, uhh...fixing a chair!" she fished. "In my room! And then...the floor collapsed!"

"And where does the hammer fit in!?" he demanded, pointing at the incriminating weapon in her hand.

She sobered almost immediately, tossing the hammer carelessly behind her. "It doesn't," she said flatly. "I wanted to ask you, you're taking the selection test next week, right?"

"Not again! I really tried, but I couldn't bring myself to tell you guys," he explained, looking down at the floor. "In the end, I wound up covering it up like I always do. It wasn't supposed to end up this way, I swear!" He shook his head slowly, then quietly said, "You should've been the first person to know. But the test is so hard, and I thought I'd probably end up failing it anyway, so I didn't tell you."

Naru hummed lightly at his admission, then reached behind her back and produced a plate of her inimitably-misshapen rice balls and set them on his desk, holding another plate with a kettle and two cups in her other hand. "Here you go," she said, smiling warmly. "I brought you a snack to help you study better."

He looked at her in utter shock. "You're...you're not mad?"

Still smiling, she shook her head, then stood up and walked away a few paces, before twirling back around to face him. "You know, this reminds me of the first day you came here," she said, her eyes losing focus slightly as she thought back to that distant memory. "We almost ended up kissing that night, didn't we?"

Keitaro laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah," he agreed. "And just like then, I screwed up pretty bad."

"Mmm, so you did," she said, walking back over to him and dropping to her knees right beside him. With her right hand, she reached up and gently pulled his glasses off. "Well, we don't want history to repeat itself, do we?"

"What do you mean Na-"

His words were cut off as she placed her hands on his cheeks and pulled him toward her, meeting him in a warm and tender kiss. Closing his eyes, he raised his right hand and settled it at her waist, allowing himself to let go of all his worries and doubts in the gentle love of her kiss.

After a few moments, far too soon in Keitaro's estimation, Naru pulled back and sat down, smiling at him. "There," she said, handing him back his glasses. "Things are bound to go better now, right?"

For a moment there, Keitaro was led to believe that Mutsumi had somehow disguised herself as Naru...

"I understand why everyone else feels the way they do," she continued. "I understand how you feel too, of course. So no, I'm not mad at all."

Her smile turned devious, and before he knew it, she had wrapped her right arm around his neck and was vigorously rubbing the knuckles of her left hand into his scalp. "Even so, you still should've told me about it in the first place, you big dummy!" she said, laughing. "After all we've been through, how could you dis me like that?"

"See! You are mad!" he answered, while thinking to himself, _She's been hanging around Seno too much, using American slang like that._

Letting go of him, Naru sat back down and laced the fingers of her right hand through his left. "I think they just wanted you to be more honest with them," she said. "By now you should realize that they care what happens to you. We all do. We're a _family_, you know."

"You're right, Naru," he said. "It was stupid of me to not think of the rest of you guys like this, to tell all of you about it."

Leaning forward, she gave him a kiss on the cheek, then stood up and pulled him up along with her. "There's still time, Keitaro," she told him. "Still time to tell them how you feel and what you want. So come on, let's get to it!"

Scant minutes later, Naru was pushing Keitaro out onto the landing just outside the entrance to the Hinata Apartments, which now seemed a little more crowded with Sabashii's convertible and Lorenzo's jeep taking up space beside the resident swordcouple's motorcycles.

"You think it's okay to tell them out here?" Keitaro asked.

"Don't think, man!" Naru replied, sounding disturbingly like Seno for that one instant. "Just get out there and do it!"

Stopping, he turned back to face the building, and looked at Naru, who winked and gave him a thumbs-up gesture. He nodded to her, then shored up his courage, planted his feet, and cupped his hands around his mouth to shout, "Residents of Hinata House! Please, lend me your ears!" He took a breath, knowing that if Seno had been there, he'd have made a crack about the Caesar line. "I'm sorry for being such a jerk and for breaking so many promises! You have to understand how I feel!"

As he spoke, Motoko, Kitsune, Shinobu, Kaolla, and Lorenzo were silently gathering on the third floor stairwell landing directly above the front entrance. The glare from the lights inside the building prevented Keitaro from seeing them. One by one, they all either leaned against a wall or sat on the ground, out of sight, and listened to what he had to say.

"I have a dream!"

Lorenzo _almost_ laughed at Keitaro's probably-unintentional line from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I want to be like Seta and travel the world and see strange new things! I wanna boldly go where no man has gone before!"

Kaolla giggled as Motoko rolled her eyes and let out a sigh at the _Star Trek_ thievery, that one more than likely intentional.

"Up until now, I've only been worried about fulfilling a promise I made as a little kid! But not anymore! This time it's different!"

Off on the side, Naru smiled and hugged herself at the mention of their promise. As far as she was concerned, they had fulfilled that childhood promise by being accepted into Tokyo University together, even though he hadn't managed to attend any classes yet. From her perspective, they _were_ living happily ever after.

"This time I'm taking this exam because I want to! So if I'm being selfish, and I know I am, please, I'm begging you, forgive me for wanting to do something for myself!"

Kitsune cracked an eye open and looked to her right, toward the direction Keitaro was in. _After all the things he's done for us over the years, it _is _about time that he finally does something because he wants to do it,_ she mused. _Maybe we overreacted._

Shinobu brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. _Sempai has always been there for us,_ she thought. _He's never hesitated to do anything he thought would make us happy. We should return the favor for him._

_Keitaro's never complained when I wanted him to play with me, or help me test out one of my new inventions,_ Kaolla thought. _He's always made sure that I was having fun, so now it's his turn to have some fun, too!_

It was taking a lot of effort for Motoko to keep a smile off her face. _A truly selfless man,_ she thought. _Forever and always putting us before himself. It's high time we repaid that generosity._ She frowned. _It shames me that I reacted the way I did. It seems I still have much to learn, both as a samurai and as a woman._

Outwardly, however, no one reacted vocally to Keitaro's proclamation. Down at the entranceway, Naru began to sweat, sensing that her boyfriend was facing a shatterpoint; if nothing was done, he would assume that everyone hated him and things would only get worse.

"You did good!" she told him, projecting cheer into her voice as she walked up to him and hugged him tightly. "Who cares what the others think? At least you've got me in your corner, right? So..how about I help you with your studying then?"

"Uh, sure."

And so it went. With only a week of time before the exam, every day that passed for Keitaro was spent fervently studying for the test, taking breaks only to eat, sleep, and bathe. Each day, Naru spent all of her free time that wasn't devoted to her own school work to helping him study. Even though she knew that success in this endeavor meant he would be leaving her behind, she wanted to see him succeed at something he wanted for his very own.

And around him, life at the Hinata-S? continued mostly as usual, except for the fact that none of the other tenants said anything to him. Keitaro, naturally, assumed it was because they were all still angry with him, but this was not the case. They had all unanimously decided that the best way they could support him was to leave him alone and not interrupt his studying. Each of them also were hoping for his success, and they all kept a close, albeit discreet, watch over him.

--

_April 19, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0602 hours, local time_

Finally, the day of the exam had arrived. Urged by Naru, Keitaro had gone after breakfast to take a bath in the hot springs in the hopes of making him relaxed and ready to take on the exam. Leaning back against the rocks of the spring, Keitaro let the warmth of the water soak into him, dispelling the chill of the morning air. Tama was with him, half-floating in the water and half-lounging on the rocks.

"I did what I could with the time I had," Keitaro told the turtle. "I _should_ be fine, but I don't know." Leaning his head back, he folded his washcloth into a square and laid it on his forehead. "It's been a week since they found out, and not one of them, with the exception of Naru, has said a single word to me."

Hearing the sound of a sliding door, Keitaro looked over to see a diminutive figure approaching the springs through the mist, the person's height alone eliminating any of the other male tenants from the realm of possibilities. "Uhh, guy alert," he called out."

This did nothing to deter the figure, however, who continued forward, revealing herself through the fog to be Shinobu, clad in nothing but a pink towel and a healthy blush.

"Shinobu, are you _blind_?" Keitaro uttered, panicking. "What are you doing here?"

Without saying anything, the young girl stepped into the bath and sat down just a foot away from the landlord.

His rising panic activating his fight or flight instinct, Keitaro turned away from her and immediately began to move away. _I don't know what's going on, but it can't be good!_ he thought. _I'd better leave!_

But he only managed to get two feet before he bumped headfirst into a soft barrier. Leaning away from it, the fog cleared enough to reveal that it had been Motoko's chest he had run into. The swordswoman sat in the chest-deep water, wrapped in a towel, staring coolly at Keitaro.

"Ack, Motoko!" he said, even as the still-clearing fog revealed the towel- or bathing suit-clad forms of Kitsune, Kaolla, Seno, Sabashii, Lorenzo, and Nealla, all lounging in or around the springs. "And you guys, too? Did I pick a wrong time to take a bath?"

_Oh, shit_, he thought to himself, sinking down up to his nose in the water and covering his head protectively. _I've seen lynch mobs before, and this is _definitely _one of them. I'm definitely going to die for sure._

"Urashima," Motoko said coyly, turning to pick up a scrap of paper from the dry rocks behind her. "About these gift certificates. If I wrote 'Die' on here, would you go kill yourself?"

_Don't need to do that,_ he thought. _You guys are gonna do it for me!_

Without warning, he suddenly found everyone throwing their certificates at him, along with calling out, "Take that!" or "Here's mine!" or "Mine, too!"

It all settled down rather quickly, and after a moment, Keitaro gathered enough courage to face the varied forms of death he'd be mandated to face from the orders on the certificates. The first one he laid eyes on was Kitsune's, but the message it read was "Don't go find yourself a sleazy blonde and forget all about Naru."

_Okay, maybe that one was a fluke,_ he thought, looking at Sabashii's next.

"_If you find yourself in San Francisco, avoid the Boardwalk area. It's where all the gays hang out."_

_Well, that's odd. But he doesn't really know me all that well, so..._

Shinobu's was next: "Please pass your exam."

_...I kinda expected that from Shinobu. She's always offering me encouragement._

Next he saw Nealla's: "Take some time and enjoy yourself. You work too hard."

Kaolla's: "I still want bananas!"

Lorenzo's: "Uhh, I don't really know what to put here. Don't overdo it?"

Seno's: "You should totally check out Fanime or Anime Expo if you've got time. The otakus will love you. PROTIP: Don't cosplay as Kakashi. Trust me."

Motoko's: "Make no mistakes."

Keitaro blinked at the certificates; not _one_ had demanded some form of death, or demanded _anything_ for that matter, except for Kaolla's request for bananas. But of course, that was usual Kaolla there. He looked up, noticing for the first time that all the girls' towels had somehow vanished in the melee, but that they were all wearing their bathing suits anyway.

"Do you guys mean...?"

"Good luck on your exam, sempai!" Shinobu said.

"At least keep _this_ promise to us, Keitaro," Motoko said with a grin, dropping her callous facade.

"You'd better remember to write while you're over there," Kitsune drawled.

"I could make ya a cool device to help ya cheat!" Kaolla offered, grinning widely.

"I got you a cell phone so we can keep in touch easier, bucko," Seno said, lounging with one arm around Motoko, the other giving Keitaro a thumbs-up.

"You guys..." Keitaro said, feeling his spirits soar. "Thanks."

At that moment, Naru entered the hot springs, already dressed in a business suit. "Hey, what are you doing in there?" she asked Keitaro. "You decide to nest or something? Come on, get out already, we're la-"

She stopped as she took notice of the party that she apparently had not been invited to, and almost dove in to pull Keitaro out by the ear, before checking herself and realizing that she didn't need to waste even _more_ time by having to change her shoes and stockings afterwards.

Obligingly, Seno and Sabashii both stood up, got hold of one of Keitaro's arms, and launched him out of the hot springs and into the dressing room. "Miss Violent Boobs is right," Sabashii said. "Don't need to be wasting any more time on the most important morning in your life."

"So far," Kitsune added, leaving a veiled reference to weddings unspoken.

"Very true, Miss Konno," Sabashii agreed, sitting back down.

Faintly, they could hear Naru's voice fading down the main stairs of the Hinata, "Come on, hurry!" and Keitaro's even more faded "I'm hurrying as fast as I can!"

The rest of the tenants settled back into the water. "Yeah, he's totally going to fail," Kitsune pronounced.

"Got that right," Seno replied.

Motoko smiled and leaned into her husband. "Nothing ever changes around here, it seems."


	14. The Gift of a Moment

_"Eight months without Keitaro. Looking back now, I don't know how I managed to survive."_  
-Naru Narusegawa; 'Spreading My Wings'

**Chapter XIII:  
The Gift of A Moment**

_May 4, 2007  
Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo, Japan  
1322 hours, local time_

The entire crew had turned out to see Keitaro off. Kaolla and Nealla were holding onto either end of a congratulatory/good luck banner, with Kaolla the more excited of the two. "Bring me back a console!" she exclaimed.

"Su, that doesn't make any sense," Seno told her. "We get consoles _here_ before they come out in America. Games too."

"Oh, yeah, you're right," Kaolla said with a giggle.

"I sense something ominous at work here," Motoko said from beside Seno, scanning the surrounding area with her arms crossed. A humanoid shadow caught her attention from the corner of her eye, but when she looked toward it, it was gone.

"Take it down a notch, guys," Kitsune said, grinning at her friends' antics. "I'm as shocked as you that Keitaro actually landed that study abroad position."

"Keitaro's really not as dumb as you think," Mutsumi told the fox lady with a smile.

"Like someone else we know," Sabashii commented off-hand.

"While I did offer him my support, I didn't expect him to pass," Motoko said.

"Yeah, he shocked us all, there," Seno replied.

"Does that mean you're in love with him?" Kaolla asked Motoko, grinning.

The swordswoman shot the foreign girl a glare. "What was that?"

"Kidding!"

"Look!" Shinobu called out, drawing everyone's attention as she pointed to the nearby escalator. "Here he comes!"

The crew all readied themselves as Keitaro appeared at the top of the escalator, side-by-side with Naru, and followed by Seta and Haruka. "Sorry about taking so long-" he began.

"Get him!" Kitsune called out, thus precipitating a mass of party poppers being fired in the couple's direction, as well as an overhead party ball popping open, showering the entire group with confetti.

"Hey, get him, not me!" Naru protested, laughing as she used her hands to ward off the paper streamers.

"I knew I should've kept my camera out," Keitaro said with a grin, holding up his right hand to shield his face. "I'm gonna miss you guys."

"Believe me, we'll be the ones missing you," Kitsune answered.

As the wave of death by celebratory paper passed, Naru turned toward Keitaro. "Oh, your collar's bent," she said, reaching up to straighten the offending piece of clothing. "Let me get that for you."

"Thanks," the former ronin replied.

"Do you have everything you need?" she asked nervously. "Passport? Gum? Clean underwear?"

A chuckle ran through the assembled crew as Naru acted like a Jewish mother, but nobody commented. They all knew and understood how nervous she was, just minutes away from being separated from the man she loved for almost an entire year. They could all sympathize.

Once Naru was done, Keitaro turned to face his assembled friends. "I just want to say thank you for all you've done for me," he told them. "Whatever happens, I promise I'll make you guys proud."

"I'll miss you, sempai," Shinobu stammered, teary-eyed.

Seno reached over and patted his surrogate younger sister on the head. "Don't worry about it, Shinobu," he said. "Just think of it like a really long vacation."

"Yeah," Kitsune agreed. "You know he's gonna come back, since he's got Naru here waitin' on him."

"Check it out!" Kaolla exclaimed, picking up a bag that was sitting on the ground behind her. "We've got gifts for you!" From within, she pulled out a smaller bag and an IMI Desert Eagle chambered for .50-caliber Action Express. "The guy outside said this powder stuff will pep you up, and I got you this nifty piece!"

"Princess, put those away!" Nealla protested, sweating. "He can't take those to America!"

Motoko produced a number of warding talismans from her coat pocket and held them out to Keitaro. "I want you to be careful and use these to protect yourself," she said.

Beside her, Seno produced a cell phone similar in make to his own and handed it to Keitaro. "Here ya go, bub," he said. "Don't forget that you gotta dial one, then Japan's nation code, _then_ our phone number. It's complicated as all hell, so we'll probably end up calling you more often than the other way around."

"Thanks guys," Keitaro said, accepting the phone and the talismans.

Next down the line, Shinobu handed him a folded length of fabric. "I made you this scarf, sempai!" she said. "Please don't catch a cold!"

"Thanks, Shinobu," he said, graciously accepting it. "You didn't have to go to all that trouble for me."

"Here," Kitsune said, handing Keitaro a small bottle. "Try not to drink it all at once."

"Kitsune!" Naru shouted. "Weren't you listening to what Nealla said about things he can't take on the plane!?"

Mutsumi handed him a large watermelon. "Here, I picked this one especially for you."

Sabashii stepped up with a grin, and handed Keitaro an ordinary-looking brown burlap bag.

"What's this?" Keitaro asked.

"Bag of holding."

After picking himself up off the floor, Keitaro looked into the bag. "Are you serious?"

Sabashii nodded. "Absolutely," he said. "It was mine, and I'm not sure I got everything I kept in it out, though, so be careful. I figure with all this big stuff you're getting, it'd be easier to lug around this way."

Giving the white-haired man a skeptical look, Keitaro put the watermelon into the bag, which neither grew heavier nor larger as the fruit disappeared inside. "Wow, it really works!" he said.

"Of course a bag of holding works," Seno called over. "Hell, Tsuruko managed to fit an entire Shinto shrine in hers, remember?"

"Looks like our bag of holding gag just got a whole lot worse," Motoko commented.

Meanwhile, a few feet away from the festivities, Haruka stood next to Seta with her arms crossed. "You take care of Keitaro for me, you hear?" she said.

"How about I take care of you instead?" Seta replied, nonchalantly taking a drag from his cigarette. "You could come along and we'd have our honeymo-"

A textbook one-inch punch from Haruka neatly and efficiently shut the archaeologist up, sending him flying back to rebound from a palm tree, to a bulletin board, and then into a wall. "Jackass," she said, then turned to Keitaro. "Keep him in line for me."

"Yes, ma'am," Keitaro replied, sweating. Then he turned to the rest of the tenants as Tama landed on his shoulder and patted his cheek, as if to say 'Good luck, old chap.' "I'm really going to miss you guys a lot. What's it been? Two years? We've been through so much it's hard to keep track."

Tama took off from Keitaro's shoulder and flew over to hover near Kitsune and Shinobu.

"Look, I consider us a family now and I want you all to stay safe," Keitaro continued. "When I get back, I'm sure I'll have tons of stories to dish out. So, don't forget me now."

Shinobu's eyes welled with tears as she uttered, "But I'll miss you..."

Kitsune patted the younger girl on the head as Tama likewise patted her shoulder. "There, there," the fox woman consoled. "Just let it out, Shinobu. We're all gonna miss him."

Looking around at the others, Naru sensed a golden opportunity. Or, as a certain pirate would've put it, the 'opportune moment.' Pulling a slip of paper out of her pocket, she took a step toward her boyfriend. "Keitaro, got a min-"

"_Attention, the check-in gate for Flight 521 to Los Angeles is now boarding."_

"That's our cue, Keitaro," Seta said.

"Guess so," the former ronin replied with a chuckle.

Seta turned around to look at his former student. "Something wrong, Naru?" he asked.

"Nope!" she lied, quickly hiding the paper behind her back. "Uh, you two just take care of yourselves!"

As Seta began to walk away, Keitaro followed, looking back to say, "I'll try and email you, Naru!"

"Yeah, sounds good!" she replied, projecting a cheer into her voice that she didn't feel.

Back with the others, Kaolla stood in front of the group, and said, "Ready? Go!"

As one, all of the tenants waved goodbye and shouted, "Bye! Good luck! Stay safe and bring us back something!"

Laughing as he stepped onto the escalator and waved back, Keitaro called, "Don't worry, I will! Thanks again!"

As the escalator carried him and Seta out of sight, Naru made one last step toward them, holding out her hand. _W-wait!_

But it was too late. They were already gone, and silence filled the wake of their departure.

"I guess that's it, then," Sabashii said.

"Yep," Seno agreed, nodding solemnly. "Wow. Eight months, huh?"

"Crazy, isn't it?" Motoko asked, reflecting the rest of the crew's sudden lack of enthusiasm.

"He's really gone," Kaolla remarked sullenly.

"I hardly had time to get to know him," Nealla said, resting a comforting hand on her twin's shoulder, "but I can already tell that things won't be the same with him gone."

Looking around at the down expressions on her friends' faces, Kitsune coughed loudly to draw their attention, then projected a cheer she didn't feel into her voice and said, "Well, let's go get wasted! Show's over!"

"Pool's closed, niggra," Sabashii said with a half-chuckle.

Kitsune looked over to Naru, who was still staring at the empty escalator. "Naru?" she asked quietly. "You comin'?"

Silence answered her.

Nodding in understanding, Kitsune turned away and began to usher the rest of the crew away. "Let's go on ahead," she told them. "She'll catch up to us later."

As her friends' voices trailed off behind her, Naru finally ceased her efforts to hold back her tears. Burying her face in her hands, she dropped down into a crouch, clenching the slip of paper in her hand. _Dammit, why couldn't I work up the nerve?_ she berated herself in her head. _It was the last time I was going to see him for eight months, and I blew my chance..._

"Oh, well," she said bleakly, standing up and turning away. "There's always email."

"_Please be advised, Flight 521 bound for Los Angeles has been delayed for inspection. It will now depart at 5:30 PM."_

"This is depressing," she muttered.

"Guess we've got four hours to kill," a familiar voice said from behind her.

"No kidding," another, equally-familiar voice said. There was a pause, and then the same voice exclaimed, "Crap, they're still here!"

"Let's go this way!"

Naru spun around just in time to catch a glimpse of Seta and Keitaro trying to disappear back down the escalator. Jumping over the tape barrier, she ran after them and snagged both of them by their shirt collars. "Just what are you two still doing here!?" she exclaimed.

"Wasting time, what else?" Keitaro replied, pointing to the nearest speaker as it repeated the flight delay announcement.

"Can't very well do much of anything else," Seta laughed, rubbing his head. "Not with all those drug-sniffing dogs combing the plane."

_Drug-sniffing dogs?_ Naru thought. _So those _were _drugs that guy sold to Kaolla... I'll have to give her a talking-to about that once we get home._

"Though, we didn't want to ruin the moment by showing up again," Seta continued. "That'd be such an anti-climax."

"Yep, I was about to start crying, too," Keitaro agreed.

Looking between the two men, Naru broke into a smile, and then before she knew it, she was roaring gales of laughter, having to double over and hold onto her stomach in order to attempt to contain the pain from laughing so hard.

"Come on, it's not like we planned it intentionally!" Keitaro exclaimed, though he couldn't help but laugh as well.

Naru reached up and grabbed Keitaro's shoulders, breathing heavily as she rested her head against his in an attempt to calm down. Behind them, Seta just smiled at the affectionate display, then turned to one side. "Well, I'm going to go spend some quality time with you-know-who," he said, then wandered off.

"So..." Keitaro trailed off. "Any idea how to kill four hours?"

_I've got _one _idea,_ Naru thought, before realizing how dirty that idea was and then proceeding to attempt to smack it out of her head.

Keitaro, apparently oblivious to this, continued, "It's too much trouble to go home and come back, but I can't just sit and watch people lug their noisy suitcases around. I'll end up with a migraine."

Having finally exorcised that mutinous idea, Naru stepped forward and slipped her arm through Keitaro's. "I've got an idea," she told him. "Since we're not going to see each other again for a long time, let's make these last few hours a date, hm?"

"Hey, that's a great idea!" he replied. "Where do we go first?"

"Just follow my lead!" she told him, pulling him deeper into the airport. As she did so, she spared a glance out a window and up toward the vast sky. _Thank you, God,_ she thought sincerely. _In these four magical hours that we've been given, we'll be able to do and say all of the things we couldn't before._

As the happy couple wandered away, a teenaged girl stepped out from behind a pillar, wielding a camera with a ranged lens attached to it. She was wearing a standard school uniform, and had her red hair pinned up in a number of spikey extensions behind her head, and her bangs parted off to the right side.

"Finally found you," she said, snapping a picture of the departing Naru and Keitaro. Lowering the camera, she produced a cell phone and pressed the speed dial button, then raised the phone to her left ear. "Yeah, it's me. Listen, I found them, just like you said. I almost got caught by _their_ Shinmei girl, but you know I'm too good for that. What? No, I haven't seen any signs of the other mahou-senseis around, but it's not like _I'd_ be able to notice them anyway."

She paused, listening to something spoken by the person on the other end of the line. "Yeah, seems like two of them are taking a trip to America. I've got some contacts over there that I can call on to keep an eye on them. Yeah, I'll trail these guys back to where they live and call you back."

--

_May 4, 2007  
Emergency Landing Field, Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo, Japan  
1636 hours, local time_

"Are you sure it's okay for us to be out here?" Keitaro asked, chuckling nervously as he followed Naru out onto the grassy field used in the event of an emergency landing. He held a bag of miscellaneous food items that they had picked up inside to eat in his left hand.

"Don't sweat the small stuff," she answered, brushing her flowing hair back with her right hand.

Just then, a departing plane passed over them, the resultant backwash from the engines sending a strong wind blasting through the field that threatened to blow Naru's skirt up over her head. "This wind is making me a bit flappable!" Keitaro exclaimed.

"I know what you'd like to see flapping!" she shouted at him, holding her skirt down with one hand while shaking her other fist at him. Once the wind had calmed down, she walked over and took the bag from him, then used a bit of her angelic strength to push him down onto the grass with one finger.

She then plopped down herself and reached into the bag, pulling out two prepared lunches, and handing one over to him. "And a tea for you," she said, handing him a steaming cup.

"Ah, thank you," he said, then turned his attention to his lunch. Even as he did so, he glanced over to his girlfriend, who was humming happily to herself as she ate her own food. _It'll be hard not being able to see Naru each day,_ he thought to himself. _It feels as if we're leaving things hanging just when they're getting interesting._

_He's too gentlemanly,_ she mused. _If anything's going to happen, I'm going to have to initiate. Should I just up and give him this?_

At the same time, both of them turned toward each other and began to speak. They stopped suddenly, laughed nervously, and Keitaro asked, "What were you saying?"

"No, you go ahead!" Naru replied.

Just then, naturally, Keitaro's hand that had been holding his cup of tea slipped, and he spilled the scalding beverage into his lap. "Ow, that's hot!" he exclaimed.

"Stop! Don't make it worse!" Reaching into the bag, she produced a handkerchief that she wrapped around her hand. "You can't do anything right without me, can you?"

"You really don't have to," Keitaro said, reaching for her hand. "I can-"

And like clockwork, Keitaro's clumsiness came into play, and he inadvertantly ended up pushing the handkerchief, and her own hand, back against her breasts. Her right eye twitching was the only sign of a negative reaction to this, and she pushed her hand back against his, moving them both away from her.

"Jeeze, you take any chance to cop a feel, don't you?" she asked playfully, reaching out her free hand to flick his forehead. "You don't have touching privileges yet."

"Ow," he muttered, rubbing that spot on his forehead.

"Oh, come on, I barely tapped you!"

"You're using your angel strength!" he argued. "I can tell!"

She blinked. "Oh, I am. I forgot to limit it again after I pushed you down." Smiling nervously, she bonked herself on the head. "Silly me. Say, maybe you should work out while you're gone." She grinned and winked at him. "Maybe then you'll be able to take me at my full strength, huh?"

"EH?" was his only response.

She laughed. "Just kidding!" she said. "But seriously, it could also help with this heroes thing we're supposed to be doing. I mean, aren't blue mages supposed to be semi-frontline? You'd be better at it if you train a little."

He chuckled as well. "Yeah, maybe I can get another tan while I'm at it," he said, knowing how favorably she had reacted in the past to him when he was fairly tanned back on Pararakelse Island. He glanced down at his watch. "Wow, time's really flown by. Way too quick..."

"Yeah," she replied sadly. "Just an hour more to go." _That feeling is back again,_ she thought.

"What's on your mind?" he asked softly, recognizing the melancholy expression on her face.

She was silent for a moment, and then she stood up, a determined look on her face. "Okay, I'm going to America with you!" she exclaimed.

"Do _what_!?"

"You heard me!" she continued. "Somebody's gotta keep you out of trouble! B-Besides, I could train with you." She tapped her index fingers together. "We could help each other out..."

"Come on, be reasonable," he said, gently squeezing her shoulder. "What about school? And your job? You can't just quit."

"Yes, I can!" Wrenching her shoulder away from him, she took a step forward, her head leaned down, shoulders hunched up, hands clenched into fists. "Besides, it's almost a whole freakin' year! How do you know that my feelings won't have changed by then? Dammit, I love you!"

Keitaro smiled, finally understanding her actions. She was afraid that being separated from him for so long would cause the love they had for each other to weaken, and possibly fade away. She had willingly given him her heart almost a year ago, and she didn't want to risk it being broken.

"Naru," he said gently, "I understand. What we have together now, is a precious thing to you. You don't want it to go away, you don't want our love to fade. So, I'll make you a promise, right now."

He took a step toward her, gently laying his hands on her shoulders. When she made no move to resist, he slipped them down her sides, and pulled her back against him, wrapping his arms around her waist. "While I'm gone, I'll do my absolute best, just for you. And in eight months, when January rolls around, I'll come home, and I'll bring you a ring."

Her eyes widened at this, and she could feel tears welling up in them. She quickly brought up her right hand to press over her mouth and stifle any forthcoming sobs. _Is he...proposing to me?_

"And then we can finally go to Tokyo U together," he continued, leaning his head against hers. "We may or may not live happily ever after, but I will not love you any less. So please, stay strong for me, and for everyone else's sake."

--

_Airport Terminal, Twenty Minutes Later_

Twenty minutes had passed and Naru was pretty sure that the handkerchief she held was more parts liquid than cloth at this point; she hadn't been able to stop crying ever since Keitaro had made that sort of half-assed proposal. _I can't believe this,_ she thought, _but he actually turned the tables on me. Now _I'm _the one who can't bear to be away from _him_. And to tell me he's going to bring me back a ring, to boot. Christ, he's more of a romantic than I gave him credit for._

Beside her, Keitaro looked up from the magazine he was reading and looked concernedly at her tear-streaked face. "Naru, are you sure you're okay? You're still-"

"You've only got thirty minutes left and you'll miss your flight if you get sidetracked now," she said, finally managing to pull herself together. "Why don't you get a little rest? I'll wake you up when it's time to go."

"I can sleep on the plane, but okay," he said, sliding into a more comfortable position in his seat and closing his eyes.

For her part, Naru watched him closely for a few minutes, and then began to close her own eyes. _I suppose I have to learn to live without him for a while..._ she thought. _And yet, I couldn't even work up the nerve to give him my request. Oh...well..._

As she slept, she dreamed of the day that Keitaro would return from America, bringing with him an engagement ring and a more proper proposal. And during the course of that dream, in that fleeting sense of being between sleep and full wakefulness, she felt warm, familiar lips pressed lovingly against hers, and a murmured '_I love you'_ along with it.

The next thing she knew, she snapped awake, mentally beating herself for having fallen asleep. Shaking herself back into a productive state of mind, she turned to her left and called out, "Keitaro, you're going to be-"

And then she realized that he was already gone, a written-upon scrap of paper occupying his seat. She recognized it immediately; it was the gift certificate he'd issued her, along with her request for a kiss. But as she looked at it, she noticed that it was signed by Keitaro, complete with a hastily-scribbled chibi drawing of herself in angel form giving a chibi Keitaro a big hug.

"_We are pleased to inform you that Flight 521 bound for Los Angeles has now departed. We apologize again for the inconvenience."_

Ignoring the announcement, she picked up the certificate and traced her fingers over Keitaro's quick sketch, smiling warmly down at it. She didn't wager she would be throwing this away anytime soon, if ever.

Lifting her eyes, she looked out toward the east, spotting a distant black speck sailing into the sky, and allowed herself to pretend that it was the plane Keitaro was traveling on, allowing her to get one last view before being separated for eight months.

"Keitaro...I'll be waiting."


	15. Mahou Sensei Intruders!

_"Unprepared and unable to compete at an even level against them, even with how little they attempted to coordinate. That pretty much details our first encounter with the Kuro crew."_  
- Natsume Megumi; 'Three Guardians'

**Chapter XIV:  
Magical Clusterfuck, Take 1!**

**Mahou Sensei Intruders! **

_May 4, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1804 hours, local time_

Humming a happy tune to herself, Naru crested the last steps leading up to the Hinata, and almost fainted from shock at the sight that awaited her. It looked as if the Hinata-Sou had become a warzone in her absence. Huge holes had been blasted into the outer walls of the building, smoke rose from five distinct locations within the apartment grounds, and the various treadmarks of the vehicles that usually rested on the main landing indicated they had either been forcibly moved during whatever battle had taken place, or they had been used in battle by their owners.

The entire crew, from Kaolla to Nealla, were already hard at work repairing the damage to the building. Utilizing her army of miniscule Mecha-Tama robots, Kaolla had created an effective means of simplistic labor and ease of ferrying supplies around the grounds. Seno was hard at work on the physical repairs, while Motoko and Nealla had formed an effective lumber-providing team: Nealla using Aero spells modified into blade patterns to fell trees, while Motoko used her _Hien_ _Batt__ Kasumi-kiri_ technique to cut the trees into usable sections of plywood.

Off to the side, Haruka was working overtime to keep a steady supply of tea and other refreshments going, with Shinobu helping her. Mutsumi was nowhere to be seen, but Naru could sense her inimitable energy near the hot springs; the self-styled Aeris knockoff seemed rather focused on dampening something down, possibly creating some kind of barrier or dam.

The sound of a vehicle engine drew her attention to the small roadway that the vehicle-owning tenants used to get their vehicles to and from the main landing, where she saw Sabashii's red convertible approaching, loaded down with building supplies, and bearing the white-haired man himself, as well as Kitsune. As the vehicle pulled to a stop in front of the building, Naru walked up to the passenger side and stood in such a position that Kitsune couldn't open the door. Crossing her arms, the angel glared down at the fox.

"Kitsune, what the hell happened here while I was gone?"

Grinning sheepishly, Kitsune replied, "Well, it's a funny story, that..."

--

_May 4, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1648 hours, local time_

"Man, I'm glad we decided to stop off and see _Spider-Man_ on the way back," Kitsune said with a grin as the party, minus Naru, made their way up the main steps. "That Tobey Mcguire's turned into a real hottie, hasn't he?"

"He held no appeal to me," Motoko replied calmly, coughing into her hand. "Though it was a good movie, in my estimation."

Beside her, Seno and Kaolla seemed to be on a rare moment of shared wavelengths. "The New Goblin's Sky-Stick was totally awesome!" Kaolla exclaimed, hopping from foot to foot and grinning widely.

"Seriously," Seno replied. "Gobbie was definitely the best damn part of that movie. Did you see that badass sword? Cut through steel pipes and brick walls like they were paper! New Goblin is _totally_ going to be my next cosplay."

As the crew crested the final steps, they found they had an audience waiting for them. Ten people, ranging from a young girl wearing a sailor-suit school uniform with glasses and her dark hair in two braids hanging down over her shoulders, to a tall, bald-headed man in a black suit and sunglasses, stood beneath the overhang over the front entrance, watching the approaching tenants.

The entire crew, including Shinobu, recogized a lynch mob when they saw one. Wordlessly, the tightly-knit group began to spread out slightly into a wider formation and lower themselves into ready stances. Though, with the vast majority of them lacking weapons, that left them at a serious disadvantage.

"Good afternoon," said a dark-skinned man with thin glasses, close-cropped, spiked black hair, and wearing a white business suit. He stepped out to the front of his group and bowed to the Hinata residents. "Are you the residents of this establishment?"

Haruka, ever the mediator, stepped forward from their group, puffing calmly on her cigarette. "You guys are suspicious," she said flatly. "What do you want with the residents?"

Just as calmly, the dark-skinned man adjusted his glasses. "Excuse my rudeness. I am known as Gandolfini, and I am an instructor at Mahora Academy in Tokyo. Surely you are familiar with it?"

"Can't say that I am," Haruka replied.

"Nope, never heard of it," Kitsune said.

"Not ringin' any bells," Seno agreed.

"What's a Mahora? Is it tasty?"

"No, Princess."

Sabashii and Motoko were suspiciously quiet.

The man identified as Gandolfini coughed into his fist. "My apologies," he said. "In any event, under the jurisdiction of the Mahora Mahou Society, you, the residents of Hinata Apartments, are hereby compelled to cease and desist your activities, these of which are drawing undesirable attention to the 'hidden world' which you have so recently come to occupy."

Haruka's only reaction to this was a raised eyebrow.

Seno stepped forward out of the group and grinned that grin he only wore when he was about to do his usual thieving routine from pop culture. When he spoke, he adopted a deeper vocal tone and a semi-British accent. "There be a lot of fancy words in that statement, Mister Gandolfini, and we're naught but humble students," he said. "What is it ye want?"

Gandolfini turned to look at his group, and a junior high school-aged girl in a school uniform, with her short red hair decorated with a pair of hairpins, shook her head slowly. Upon turning around, Gandolfini shrugged and replied, "We want you to stop drawing attention with your magical and special abilities. The world of magic imposes stiff penalties on those who risk revealing the existence of magic to the mundane world."

Without missing a beat, Seno nodded and replied, "Ah, well. Then we are disinclined to acquiesce to your request."

"Means no," Haruka provided, finishing off the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ ripoff.

The expressions of the outsiders' became dark, and the tension hanging between the two groups grew to almost palpable levels. A tense energy filled the air, oblivious to any normal people who might happen to be watching, but both sides knew it was rising magical energy. This confrontation, this cold war, was ready to go hot at any second.

"I see," Gandolfini said. "Regrettable that you refuse to cooperate. In that event, we have no choice but to take you all into custody for your punishment to be decided upon at a later time."

"We're thinkin' not!" Kitsune exclaimed.

"Hastega!" Shinobu shouted almost simultaneously, lifting her right hand into the air as a whirl of magic and wind enveloped her and the rest of her comrades.

The tenants of the Hinata then burst out as though a bomb had exploded in their midst. Seno, Sabashii, and Motoko directly rushed the opposing group as Lorenzo and Shinobu shot to either side, Haruka leapt back in the direction of her tea shop where she kept her weapons, and Kaolla and Kitsune leapt straight up, sailing up toward the second floor of the building. Mutsumi remained where she had been, waving a hand at herself to further increase her speed, then rapidly beginning to cast ability-enhancing blessings on her allies before they got out of her sight range.

That left Nealla standing where she had been, a violet glow wreathing her body as she used her Manafont special ability to hurl varied elemental magic spells at the enemy party to keep them pinned in place, even if just for a moment.

At the same time, the enemy party also reacted. Gandolfini drew an IMI Desert Eagle .357 from behind his back and fired at Haruka before giving chase, but the Haste-enhanced tea shop proprietor easily evaded the projectile. A long-haired blonde woman in a nun's outfit, the tall bald man in the suit, and another blonde woman in a business suit who looked like a blonde Tsuruko, rushed forward to meet the three attackers from the Hinata crew. Another pair of girls wearing nun clothing, complete with coifs on their heads, set off in pursuit of Kaolla and Kitsune, with the taller of the two pursuing Kitsune, and the other going after Kaolla. The young girl in the sailor uniform mumbled an incantation, then hurled an orb of water toward Mutsumi, then produced an extending staff and rushed the older woman. Yet a fourth nun, this one wearing a mask covering the lower half of her face, leapt after Lorenzo, while the red-haired junior high school girl set off after Shinobu.

The last man in the enemy party, also wearing a black suit and sunglasses but with a full head of black hair, and matching beard and mustache, squared off directly facing Nealla and snapped his fingers, sending a pressure wave air-type spell racing in her direction.

Reacting instantly, Nealla fired an Aero spell back in his direction to nullify the effects of his attack, and while he was still preparing his next cast, she flicked her left and right hands toward him, inflicting him with a pair of status effects before he could even begin to attempt resisting them. As she watched, the man snapped his fingers ineffectively several times, then looked around in confusion before beginning to stumble about randomly.

_Silence and Confuse combo,_ she thought to herself. _The bane of all mages._

As calmly as if there wasn't a pitched battle going on, she strolled forward into the Hinata Apartments.

Inside, the red-haired girl had followed Shinobu as the healing mage had dashed straight to the kitchen. "Shinobu, just give it up!" she called out. "Don't make me hurt you!"

"I can't believe you, Mei!" the girl's voice shouted back. "How could you turn on us like this?"

"It's not like I want to, Shinobu," Naru's step-sister answered, calmly approaching the kitchen. "I'm just following my orders. If you won't come out and surrender, Shinobu, I'm going to have to come in after you."

"I don't want to fight you, Mei!"

The young mage shook her head, withdrew a card from her pocket, and whispered, "_Adeat_." As she did so, a brilliant flash went off, and when it cleared, the card had been replaced by a broom which she brought over her right shoulder.

The second she stepped into the kitchen, she caught a flash of movement from her left side, but could do nothing as a massive black object loomed up into her vision, and then she saw nothing more.

As Shinobu brought back the heavy cast-iron stir-fry skillet she'd just used to punch Mei's meal ticket, she looked down at the girl she thought of as her friend with tears in her eyes. "Please, don't hate me for doing any of this, Mei," she said, then brought up her left hand and concentrated for a moment, before gesturing toward the girl to cast Silence on her.

It was at that moment that Nealla entered the area, to see Shinobu standing over the unconscious Mahora intruder with a bloodied stir-fry skillet in one hand, and casting a spell with the other. She smiled at the shorter girl and said, "Excellent, Shinobu!" Lifting her right hand, she traced a gesture into the air, and then shackles of magical energy rose from the floor and snared the ankles and wrists of Mei. "There. I used Bind on her. In conjunction with your putting Silence on her, she won't be able to escape once she regains consciousness. Keep an eye on her, would you? We'll interrogate her after the battle is over."

Schooling her features into an expression of determination, Shinobu nodded and planted herself in the doorway, then began to cast a series of defensive spells on herself as Nealla wandered toward the next area of battle.

Outside, the six frontline combatants met head-on in a spectacular display of combat skills. The blonde Shinmei instructor struck out with a horizontal iaijutsu slash, but Motoko easily rolled under the strike and calm up on the palms of her hands behind the woman, lashing out with a mule-kick to the woman's back that sent her stumbling forward several paces. Quickly, Motoko pushed herself up to her feet and assumed an unarmed combat stance, but knew she'd need her weapon before long.

"Ahh, Aoyama-sama," the woman said, resting her sword on her shoulder. "I could scarcely believe it when I was told that you were among these troublemaking miscreants, but here you stand before me. And without your sword, no less. I wonder, how far have you slipped since you ran away from the dojo?"

"Kuzunoha," Motoko replied with slit eyes. "As I recall, I heard from aneue that you left the dojo shortly after I did. Burden of guilt, perhaps?"

"Mmm, you've become rather insubordinate," Kuzunoha said. "It's just as well. I shall enjoy teaching you a lesson."

"If you think you can," Motoko snapped back. "Oh, and there's one more thing."

"What's that?"

Before Kuzunoha knew what had happened, Motoko had suddenly appeared directly in front of her, inside the strike range of her sword, and her blurred right hand was rushing open-palmed toward her chest. The ki-infused palm blow sent Kuzunoha flying backwards to slam into the side of Sabashii's convertible.

"My name is Nakakami!" Motoko shouted, rushing her downed opponent.

The man in the suit shifted his feet, making a fast rush forward. He would strike hard and quick, but soon met violently with an incoming boot. This was enough to send him skidding back, rubbing his jawline, and gazing from behind his dark shades at his aggressor. The man before him was tall, thin, and yet had a strong-seeming aura. He was a warrior, that much would be observed by his stance alone. Though the man was dressed casually, two things stood out. First, the armband he wore. It carried the shape of an odd turtle, and had an unusual green glow. The second thing was the man's eyes. Those eyes, were the eyes of someone who had a great weight behind them.

Briefly, he turned his head to see how his two female companions were fairing against their opponents. Unable to determine at such an early stage, he gazed at the white haired man, knowing just by looking at him, he had strength. Still, he was more than confident he could fight this battle alone. He looked at his opponent again,and he smiled. His opponent smiled in return, as the wind picked up between them, blowing stray leaves about.

Sabashii smiled at his shiny-headed opponent, and as the man started to speak, he raised his hand, cutting him off, before wagging his finger in a sort of 'no no no' gesture. He smirked as he lowered his head, eyes closing, and said, "You're about to tell me your name. I don't want to know. A name is something you give an opponent when one of the two of you is about to die, so let's save that for later, hmm? I mean, if we're going to fight with killing force. To be honest, I'd rather not, but then again..I want to see what you can do."

The man blinked. _Can he be all that confident? He doesn't seem to have an overwhelming aura, though he does feel strong._ He didn't say anything, though, and fell into a standard fighting stance. _The best way to test an opponent is to attack._

Sabashii raised an eyebrow at the basic stance the man was using, and did him the courtesy of the same, using a simple beginner's fighting stance he'd learned when he was much younger. He watched the man, gazing at the chi and magic, that flowed within him, using his own form of second sight. He mused, _He's strong. I don't want to reveal too much, but against him I might have to go a little further than usual. Alright. We'll try out that style. I do hope all my training before I came here has paid off..let's go!_

As Seno approached his opponent, a number of black-garbed, masked creatures appeared around her and charged toward Seno. The swordsman leapt to the side to avoid one of the creatures' diving slams, then stepped back in and lashed out with a high kick to its chin, sending the creature flying back as the swordsman called out, "Sweet Chin Music!"

At a gesture from the blonde nun, the remaining creatures paused in their attacks for a moment, circling the swordsman warily. "I can tell by the way you hold yourself that you are a swordsman, not accustomed to hand-to-hand melees," she said. "While I have no doubt that you have quite a few surprises up your sleeve-"

"And in my boots," Seno interrupted, then looked down at his sandal-clad feet. "Well, figuratively speaking..."

The nun coughed. "Be that as it may, you cannot hope to prevail in a situation where your primary weapons are denied you," she said. "You can make things easier on yourself by surrendering now."

Seno smirked. "Give up? Are you kidding me? If I was a givin' up type, then I wouldn't be living here today. If I was a givin' up type, then I wouldn't have such a beautiful wife." He gestured off-hand to where Motoko was putting up a furious melee offensive to keep her opponent's armed advantage from hindering her. "If I was a givin' up type-"

"Yes, yes, I understand," the nun said with a scowl. "You're not going to surrender. Jeeze, what is it with you hero types and your unnecessary speeches?"

"Actually, being that I am something of a conneisseur of video games, it's usually the _villains_ that have that defining character flaw of sitting around and detailing their plans to lengthy and unnecessary extents, completely ignoring the fact that they have the hero characters right where they need them, and thus giving the heroes time to escape and counteraffect the villains' plans."

The nun nodded. "Yes, villains do tend to have that flaw, don't they?" She shrugged. "Well, being as we're not truly villains, merely ambiguously-good characters whose goals temporarily stand opposed to yours, that's why we're sparing the lengthy character speeches."

"Ah, but aren't we wasting time right now with one of those speeches, albeit in the form of a dialogue rather than a single villain's monologue?"

"By the powers, you're right. Well, as we're likely boring the audience to tears and destroying the otherwise gracefully-chaotic flow of the battle, shall we?"

"Let's," Seno answered, producing a kunai from a hitherto-unknown location and flinging it into the face of one of the masked creatures, causing it to disperse into shadow and leaving an opening. The swordsman immediately rushed through the opening, rolling forward to avoid the others' attempts at grabbing him, and then leapt up, grabbing the overhead awning above the front entrance and using it to propel himself up to the third floor, where he paused for a moment to look down at his opponent.

"My dear lady, you will always remember this as the day that you _almost_-"

The rumbling impact of the bald-headed man slamming his fist down onto the ground where Sabashii had been standing just seconds before threatened to knock Seno down from his perch, effectively interrupting another attempt to pirate from pop culture. Securing his grip on the railing, he looked down as if to continue the line, realized that the effect was now gone, and simply jumped over the rail toward his and Motoko's room.

Down below, the blonde nun's eyes widened. "Stop him!" she commanded her summoned creatures. "He's going after his weapons! Don't let him get them!"

Four of the masked and cloaked figures leapt up effortlessly to the third floor. A moment later, Seno's voice exclaimed "TATSUMAKI!" and a whirlwind blasted out from the third floor corridor, carrying within it the four summoned creatures that had gone up there. A small object sailed out into the vortex with the force of a flung baseball, and exploded shortly thereafter, filling the tornado with raging flames that spread out and set fire to nearby trees and parts of the Hinata-S?.

As the firey cloud in the air dispersed, Seno's form came sailing through it, wielding his gleaming katana drawn back in a reverse right-handed grip, with two more blades stuck through his belt.

"_Nocturna Nigredinis_!" the blonde shouted as a massive shadow creature, easily larger and obviously more dangerous than the rest, loomed up from behind her and lifted its huge arm to intercept Seno's sword strike.

Gandolfini took a moment to watch the fight and chuckle. He shook his head and took on a self-satisfied look as he watched their bald companion strike the ground and the retreat of the white haired man they called Sabashii. He spoke up, sounding rather confident, "Our companion there, he is a master of hand to hand combat. With the capability to flood his body with ki and magical energy to increase his power and speed, it is doubtful that any low level fighter like your friend could match him in real combat. He's going easy on him now as it is. Still, he's putting forth more effort than he usually does. He must think that man is capable. How interesting."

"Can't be helped.."

That was all that Sabashii said in response to all the talking and fighting going on around him. He had hoped, but it wasn't to be. He nodded to himself, and reached for his belt, then slipped said belt off of his waist, holding it out in one hand.

The enemy had lifted his arm, dust and pieces of concrete falling off of his knuckles, which seemed unhurt at all, and he looked towards the white haired enemy quizzically. To the naked eye, it looked normal enough, this belt that Sabashii had removed, at least at first glance. Tacky, but normal. The belt had metal globes that circled around, giving it a sort of 'bead' look. Stylish if you were retro, but Sabashii had a sort of retro look.

But looking carefully, each of the globes had a measurement unit on them, carved into them in the inside. It would have been impossible to see looking from the outside. The measurements had to be wrong though. Unless they were made of some kind of otherworldly material, there was no way even a talented man could move around with something of that density on without some kind of sorcery, let alone the impossibility of something that small being that dense.

Motoko paused in her battle briefly, to blink a few times, muttering, "That tacky, awful belt he wears. The way they're marked... Are those...weights?"

Seno grinned and nodded, ducking under an arm sweep from his opponent's shadow puppet, and slicing the beast along its arm in kind. "Good old fashioned weight training. I didn't figure him to do the old school thing, but sure as shit looks like he does. Wonder how much he puts on? Rail thin bastard can't be carrying more than two or three hundred pounds or he'd be moving like a turtle. No offense, Tama."

To which the hiding onsen kame simply peeked her head from her hiding place, to give a cheerful, unoffended "Myuh!" before resuming her hiding once again.

Gandolfini chuckled and sighed, shaking his head, and once again adjusting his glasses. He watched Sabashii as he let go of the belt and it seemed to drop in slow motion toward the ground. The magic teacher seemed rather amused at this turn of events, having seen many battles in his years. Even with weight training, except in extreme circumstances, it wouldn't enable him to catch up.

"Is that man stupid? Even shedding a bit of weight, it doesn't matter, taking off some fitness training belt won't enable him to catch up with the moves of-"

And the Mahora teacher's tirade is cut short when the belt hits the ground, and the entire area shakes as if an earthquake just hit. The depression left in the ground from the impact of Sabashii's belt impacting was double the size of the one that the bald man made with his enhanced fist. All the fighting kind of..stopped..everyone looking briefly, wide-eyed at the comet-sized hole in the pavement, and then at Sabashii, as much as they can, as the man became a blur of red and white, moving at a speed that defied logic, physics, and most of the science books you find on earth.

It was all the bald man could do to defend himself against the flurry of blows that came his way. Punches, kicks, shoulder thrusts... The velocity at which the man was moving was unreal. And the amount of weight he was just casually carrying on his waist... It's clear he underestimated this man viciously. The man's eyes narrowed behind his shades, as he blocked a hard kick... Snd Sabashii blurred out of sight, to end up behind the man, who just barely spun and raised his arms again to defend a second blow. But before he could even begin a counter, the man had blurred away again, and again, and attacked. He'd managed to defend himself so far, and then Sabashii just... disappeared. The man's eyes flicked rapidly around: left, .right, behind, ahead... Only one way... And he finally spoke, "From above..?!"

And that's all he got out before Sabashii's boot impacted him squarely in the face from above, the man having gone upward, and into a rapid spin. The white-haired man seemed to simply stay there in midair, before skidding back, finally hitting the ground, one hand down to help him balance. He lifted his head and smirked, as his opponent also skidded backwards, a cut open on his face, and his shades cracked apart. That kick would have killed a normal man in an instant at the speed Sabashii was moving at. This guy was tough, that much was certain now. He wasn't just posturing.

Sabashii popped his knuckles then, and narrowed his eyes. _Now._ He'd do it now, he can almost predict it. And he predicted well.

The enemy slowly unbuttoned the suit top and dropped it aside, along with his shirt, though not before putting on a new pair of shades from his suit pocket. Truly, this man was well built. And he made several gestures, murmuring in a language any magician would recognize. It was a spell, but despite it being short, it was powerful. The man's body flooded with energy then, putting off a bright aura.

Sabashii watched. _Fifty percent... Seventy-five... Yes, he's going to go all out._ It was all Sabashii could do to follow his movements as the man tore forward, ripping up pavement as he did so. His arms came up rapidly to block the bald man's punch, and the impact alone was enough to send him skidding back. He flicked his eyes behind him, and quickly his own hand shifted, striking his opponent in the shoulder rather than blocking his next attack.

The strike made its way home, and Sabashii was thrown into the dirt, sliding and tumbling onto the ground. Again the man appeared, this time to his right side. A brief duck under the kick he threw, and again, Sabashii struck him, twice this time, using all of his available speed. Both legs, yet the man didn't seem to be harmed at all.

In response, he grabbed the white haired man's arms and spun him about, throwing him into the Hinata-S?, sending him smashing through several adjoining walls, and out into the courtyard in the center of the building's grounds.

He grunted and stood up, dusting himself off. Three so far, and this time he was prepared. The enemy appeared before him, arms crossed over his puffed out chest, his entire body glowing in a pale blue-green pulsing light. So this was his full strength. It was impressive. In his current state, even divested of the weight of the metal, he could just follow and match his movements, and in terms of muscles, the man was superior. Sabashii popped his neck from side to side as the man spoke.

"I have to commend you. For me to have to go all out like this, it's only happened once before. You will meet the full force of my fury. Your blows cannot harm my body while I am in this state, you see. I take all forms of direct physical damage and turn it into strength. Even were this not the case, your attacks are weak. You aren't putting any force behind them. I have determined that your speed alone is your advantage, and the velocity in your movements gives you the impact needed to do real damage. As a fighter, you are capable indeed. However, relying on your speed to do the work for you is your flaw. I will exploit it and defeat you soundly!"

Meanwhile, Kitsune was standing outside Kaolla's room, watching as the two nun girls that had pursued them stalked slowly up the hall toward them, wearing triumphant expressions. "Nowhere to run now, little fox," the taller of the girls taunted. "What are you going to do, now that the hounds have run you to the ground?"

"Hey, don't be talkin' to me like that, ya little brat!" Kitsune shouted. "You're just a little kid, so don't be talkin' to me like you're the big girl on campus!"

"Just what do you hope to be able to accomplish against us?" the taller girl asked mockingly. "Our experiences with magic outweigh yours. There's no way you could beat us at our own game."

"Kitsune, catch!" Kaolla's voice called from behind.

The fox woman glanced back to see two dagger weapons hurtling through the air toward her, pointed tips first. In a feat of amazing dexterity and agility that impressed even her, she spun around, reached out, and snagged the weapons by their hilts, then completed the rotation and lowered herself back into a fighting stance, holding the daggers in a reverse grip with her arms crossed, the right dagger up near her left shoulder, the left down under her right elbow.

"Experience ain't everything, ya know?" she shot to the younger girl with a grin, then blurred forward and swiped her right dagger at the girl's face.

She managed to lean back fast enough to avoid having her mouth lengthened by the singing metal blade, but its sharp point tore through the mask covering her face on the left side and left a shallow cut in her cheek. Anger flashing in her eyes, the girl produced a card from within her clothing that bore her likeness, and shouted "_Adeat_!"

There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, the heeled shoes that she wore had been replaced by a pair of running shoes sporting the Nike logo.

Kitsune noticed this, and laughed. "_That_ is your secret weapon? You got ya some Nikes?"

The girl grinned. "Laugh while you can, foxy lady," she replied.

In the next instant, there was a blurring flash where the girl had been standing, and then she was gone. Kitsune looked around in confusion at her opponent's sudden disappearance, and then felt a heavy impact in her back that sent her flying forward. She managed to twist in midair to hit the ground in a roll and come up in a crouch, facing back the way she had come. She saw another blurred flash, and then the girl was suddenly in front of her, her right leg reared back to take Kitsune's head off in a sweep-kick.

The fox ducked under the blow and then stabbed up toward her opponent's center mass with both blades, but the blurred flash had already come again to signal the girl's disappearance, and then something hit her in the right side of her face, spinning her around to knock her flat on her back on the floor. Another blurred flash, and the grinning figure of the girl had appeared over her prone form, fist reared back to deal the finishing blow to Kitsune.

Meanwhile, down the hall, Kaolla stood toe-to-toe against the shorter, likely younger, of the nun pair, armed with missile pods on both arms and legs that seemed to have some infinitely-replenishable supply of missiles. Grinning, the MolMolian princess looked downrange at her opponent. "Since you're even littler than me, I'll give you a chance to bow out, now."

"Don't think so, monkey-girl," the girl replied flatly. "You'll just have to see if you can blow me away with your little missiles."

"You asked for it!" Kaolla stated, shifting her limbs in a manner to align all four missile pods and aim them at the girl. "Don't expect me to go easy on you because missiles can't pull punches! Full volley of rocket fire!"

At this, the four missile pods unleashed a full volley spread of thirty-two missiles that curved on erratic courses down the hallway toward the nun girl, who stood calmly watching them. At the last second, however, her eyes flared a bright blue and every one of the missiles curved away from her, some arcing up into the ceilings, walls, and floors nearby, others soaring out into the distance, and at least half a dozen arcing back toward Kaolla.

Reacting swiftly, the MolMolian princess dove forward into a roll, causing the missiles to bypass her and explode at various points on the hallway, blasting craters into the walls and floor of the building. Coming up out of her roll, Kaolla leapt forward and angled her body into perfect dropkicking form, her bare foot aimed squarely at the girl's nose.

But the girl seemed even less concerned about this direct attack, crossing her arms as her eyes flared again. A hazy blue aura surrounded Kaolla's entire body, halting her in midair. The girl smiled coldly.

"Gah, what is this?" Kaolla demanded, squirming frantically in an attempt to free herself from the invisible grip. "Is this some kind of telekinesis?"

"You guessed it," the girl provided. "As you can now tell, my magical powers increase my latent telekinetic abilities. So allow me to put this question to you: Are _you_ ready to surrender?"

"Certainly not!" the princess retorted, reaching behind her back to produce a portable plasma cannon, a similar model to the positronic laser rifle she regularly employed, only this one fired explosively-volatile bursts of plasma akin to a rocket launcher.

Grinning insanely, the mad scientist/alchemist fired the plasma cannon at the girl.With her eyes widening in shock, the girl immediately released her hold on Kaolla to concentrate on redirecting the incredible burst of power away from her.

"Is that kind of technology even _possible_?" the girl wondered aloud, watching as the redirected plasma bolt arced gracefully toward the hot springs.

The plasma orb sailed over the fence and into the hot springs proper, the extreme heat of the condensed plasma instantly evaporating all of the water in the springs. With nothing to cushion the impact, the bolt of energy slammed into the bottom of the springs with a massive explosion, sending a concussive shockwave all the way out to Sagami Bay. The rocks in the immediate area of effect were flash-vaporized by the release of energy, creating a deep crater in the bottom of the bath.

The short nun watched the results of the plasma bolt. "It kinda worries me to think what would've happened if that had hit me instead," she mused aloud, then looked to Kaolla. "Don't you know the meaning of restraint?"

Kaolla tossed the expended single-use weapon away carelessly, then stood up and checked that her missile pods had reloaded from the volley earlier. "What's retraint?" she asked. "Is it tasty?"

Down on the ground level, the young schoolgirl disentangled her wooden bo from Mutsumi's metal quarterstaff and leapt back, raising her left hand to incant another water spell to throw at the older woman. But she stopped in midword, lowering her hand and looking toward the damaged hot spring.

"What? Is that what I think it is?"

Mutsumi kept her attention focused on the girl, not bothering to look. She knew as soon as the plasma bolt had damaged the springs that what was happening now would happen. From beneath the hole blasted into the rocks, greenish-blue water that seemed to glow faintly from within was bubbling up, rising fast enough to quickly fill the hot springs. As the younger girl watched, two tendril-like towers of the water rose into the air, spiraling around one another like strands of DNA to almost the level of the entire building. At the top of the towers, the two strands merged together and began to rain the water down over the entire battlefield.

"It can't be..." the water mage muttered, holding up her left hand to catch the falling raindrops on her palm.

A few feet away, Gandolfini paused in reloading his Desert Eagle, crouched behind Seno's motorcycle, as the first few drops of the rain fell on him. He looked up, and to the side, to see what was happening in the hot springs.

"A wellspring of the Lifestream," he muttered. "This is an interesting place, indeed."

Holding her quarterstaff loosely in her hands, Mutsumi said to her opponent, "This place was built upon a current of the Lifestream that runs just beneath the surface. As such, magic and other abilities, especially healing, are greatly enhanced here. And even moreso to Those Chosen by the Planet."

The girl stared across at Mutsumi for a moment, then stood out of her ready stance and moved her bo behind her back. "Then...are you?"

Tilting her head to one side, the turtle lady regarded her suspiciously. "Hm?"

"Would you...happen to be...the Yochi no Kouken?"

"You know of me?" Mutsumi asked, surprised. Very few people, even amongst mages and members of this supposed 'magic world,' knew about the Yochi no Kouken, or...

"Only by the legend and title," the girl replied with a nod. "Yochi no Kouken, the Guardian of the World, responsible for safeguarding the Knowledge of Existence and maintaining a vigil over the Chosen Heroes of Destiny."

"You seem particularly well-informed concerning the Guardians," Mutsumi praised. "There are things that you do not know, but that is only to be expected."

"I only want to help," the girl murmured, lowering her bo to a horizontal position behind her back. "I'll withdraw. We should be supporting you at Mahora, not condemning you."

Depressing the recessed button that retracted the two ends of her six-foot quarterstaff to reduce the weapon's size to a more manageable three feet, Mutsumi crossed the distance separating them and patted the younger girl on the head. "Keep working hard," she said. "I'm sure you'll be a great help someday, Natsumi Megumi."

The girl, Natsumi's, eyes widened. "How did you know my..?"

Turning to the side, Mutsumi raised her left hand, palm upright, to watch the Lifestream raindrops fall into her hand. "Ara, I hope no one catches cold from the rain," she said, assuming her regular airheaded demeanor.

Natsumi blinked as Mutsumi went from Yochi no Kouken to just a ditzy girl in less time than it took for a synapse to fire, but then caught the sideways glance that the Okinawan was giving her. With a start, she realized that Mutsumi's attitude shift had been a ploy; she was actually answering Natsumi's question.

_The rain..._ Natsumi pondered. _Oh! It's raining because the Lifestream is flowing out of the ground over there. She knows who I am because of the Lifestream!_

But then Mutsumi wandered off randomly, muttering about needing to get an umbrella. Natsumi blanched and thought, _Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and she really is a moron..._

A handful of meters away, Seno leapt into the air, flipping up and over the monstrous shadow puppet as it sent a half-dozen tendril-like spikes knifing into the ground where he had been standing. Raising his left hand into the air, he called the wind to encircle and enchant himself and his blade.

"Time to show off some new tricks I've been working on!" he said. "_Tachi_! _Shippudageki_!"

Sliding forward, he struck up and in with his blade, the wind infusion both increasing the speed of his strike and honing the already-sharp edge of the sword into an even more lethal strike. Unfortunately, aside from cutting a wide swath through the cloak of the shadow creature, the blow otherwise appeared to do no harm.

Undeterred, Seno leapt over his double-opponent again, landing with his back facing the blonde nun, his right hand clenching the hilt of his sheathed sword. "_Tachi_! _Aranami_!"

A sound like that of a roaring ocean swell loomed over the battlefield before he spun and struck horizontally with his sword. He was too far away for the blade itself to strike his opponent, but a wave of ki roared out of the blade. The nun raised her arms in front of her to protect herself, and the shadow creature mirrored her movement, thus absorbing the damage that she would have taken. But the wave of ki also was targeting the creature itself, as well as the half dozen tendrils waving from its back. The tendrils, lacking the stamina and higher levels of health that the creature possessed, were instantly and efficiently severed from its back, dispersing into shadows as they fell away.

Lowering her arms, the woman grinned at Seno. "Haven't you realized yet, you fool?" she taunted. "None of your pathetic techniques can penetrate my defense. At maximum output, my shadow familiar renders me completely immune to physical assault."

The swordsman scowled. "What happened to not making the villains' mistake and giving away your plans? I mean seriously, if I know that my physical attacks aren't going to hurt you, I'm just going to switch out with a mage who can drop a magical clusterfuck on your face."

"You have only one offensive mage in your party, and she's nowhere to be found," the woman replied off-hand, gesturing around her to show that his only allied combatants on the field were Haruka, Motoko, and Mutsumi.

"Oh, well that could be problematic," he said. "Guess I'll just have to whittle you down the old-fashioned way." Suddenly, he grinned. "_Or_ my sniper backup could axe your little shadow familiar."

Eyes widening in shock, the blonde woman looked up toward the roof to see Lorenzo kneeling at the apex of the apartment's rooftop, his customized M14 in hand, staring down the scope directly at her. She heard the marksman call out, "Eagle Eye Shot!" before he squeezed the trigger, the loud report of the weapon firing echoing off the mountains. As the bullet sailed in toward her, ki formed around it, taking the shape of an eagle in a dive toward its prey.

She once more raised her arms to protect herself, and the shadow puppet moved its massive arms to surround its master and defend her from the shot. It wasn't until she heard her puppet roar in pain and lurch backwards that she realized that she was never the sniper's target. Looking up and back, she watched in horror as her familiar writhed in agony, flickering in and out of visibility.

A light clacking sound drew her attention forward, and she saw that Seno had sheathed his sword and lowered himself into a crouch less than five feet away from her, tensed in preparation for something. She heard him utter the word, "_Tachi_..."

And then she felt extreme pain in her midsection, akin to being rammed by a car at a decent clip. Her vision blurring, she could see that the swordsman was now standing behind her, his blade extended out to his right side. But she could also see him still standing tensed before... No, that was an afterimage; the swordsman had moved and struck so fast that he'd left an afterimage where he'd been standing!

"_Raizensoku_," Seno muttered, then sheathed his blade on his left side.

"You're...strong..." she managed to utter, before collapsing face-first on the ground, blood pooling beneath her from the strike across her centerline that she'd been dealt.

The swordsman turned to look down at his fallen opponent. "You're lucky," he told her, then held up his hand to catch the falling rain. "If the Lifestream wasn't raining down on us, that wound would be fatal. As it is, it'll leave you a nasty scar. Let that serve as a lesson, not to fuck with the Hinata crew."

On the rooftop above, Lorenzo checked the ammunition counter in a small corner of the scope of his rifle, a nifty upgrade provided to him by Kaolla, then sighted back down the scope and centered the crosshairs over Gandolfini's head. Slowing his breathing, Lorenzo steadied his hand and waited, waited, for the perfect shot, for the opportune moment.

And then he felt a hard kick to his backside, propelling him off the roof and down toward the hot springs. As he fell, he twisted in midair to look back and see the masked nun standing behind where he had been, drawing her foot back from the kick she'd applied to him. Even knowing his battle was over, he chuckled. "Damn, snipers need protection in an open battle just like mages do. Isn't that a bitch?"

With a splash, Lorenzo fell into the Lifestream-filled hotsprings, leaving the score standing at Hinata-S?: 3, Mahora Ten: 2.

With that, he turned to where Motoko stood facing off against the Shinmeiryu instructor. Both looked suitably roughed up, which came as a testament to Motoko's versatility, in that she'd managed to inflict sufficient damage to her armed opponent while sustaining a negligible amount in her own right. Reaching down to his right side, Seno pulled out the black form of the sheathed Hina blade and tossed it toward his wife. She caught the airborne weapon without even looking, and placed it where it belonged at her left hip.

"Your evasion and defensive skills have increased significantly since you left us, Motoko-sama," Kuzunoha said, setting herself in a preparatory stance that everyone in the Hinata would easily recognize. "Now we can see if your swordsmanship has improved as well." Shifting her sword down to her side, she struck out in a diagonal slice, sending a wave of pressurized air and ki racing toward Motoko. "_Jankuzankusen_!"

Shifting her stance, Motoko gripped her blade and struck horizontally, calling out "_Zankusen_!" as her wave of ki impacted with Kuzunoha's ki wave and canceled it out. A plan was forming in her mind, eliciting a grin as she dashed to the side, leaping on top of Lorenzo's Jeep. If she remembered correctly, back when she was still at the dojo in Kyoto, it would take her precisely six seconds to recover from a ki attack...

At seven seconds, she leapt off the Jeep, toward Kuzunoha, as golden energy began to arc the length of her blade. "_Raimeiken_!" she exclaimed, slicing her sword down toward her opponent.

The Shinmei instructor, obviously, knew what _Raimeiken_ was all about, and stepped to the side to allow Motoko to discharge her attack harmlessly into the ground. Smiling, anticipating her easy victory over Motoko's careless mistake, turned her blade over so that the dull edge would strike the young heir, and swung up toward Motoko's throat.

Only to meet thin air.

Knowing that Kuzunoha would easily have dodged the _Raimeiken_, and using that as a lure to draw the older, cockier woman into a trap, Motoko had driven her sword into the ground and used it as a pivot springboard to propel herself up and sail gracefully over Kuzunoha, bringing herself around to the woman's unprotected backside for just an instant. But that instant was all she required.

Even as Kuzunoha began to turn to correct her mistake, Motoko charged her body with ki and then planted her palm against the small of Kuzunoha's back. "_Zanmaken Guren Issen_!" With that, a powerful blast of ki from the combination of _Issen Zanmaken_ and _Gurenken_ ripped into Kuzunoha's body, shredding most of her clothing and pitching her forward into Motoko's blue motorcycle, unconscious.

Standing up, Motoko retrieved her blade from the ground and flicked her wrist to remove the dirt clinging to its tip, before sheathing it again and turning toward Seno, who gave her a thumbs up. "I believe that makes the score four to two?" she said.

"If you want to get technical, it's five-three since Mutsumi and her little opponent just _stopped_ fighting all of a sudden," he replied. "That leaves Haruka, Kaolla, and Sabashii to still win their fights, since Jusu and Kitsune lost theirs."

As they stood around idly, another wall of the Hinata exploded outwards, heralding the return of Sabashii vs. Baldy to the front landing of the building. The movement the two fighters were locked in carried them back to the front of the house, and past the gate, down near the steps. Sabashii knew this was the chance, and he dodged and spun and blocked all he could, though he couldn't stop them all.

For every several blows he took, he delivered one of his own, palm and fingers, hitting here and there. His opponent seemed to block them all, or at least interject parts of his body he believed would take the least damage. Still, it wasn't looking good for Sabashii.

Annoyed now, and ready for this to be over, the man in the shades raised both arms up over his battered enemy, and the level of his energy aura doubled. Suddenly yelling out a loud kiai battle cry, there is only a moment of pause, before the large man slammed his fists downward, causing a great explosion of green and blue energy. Breathing heavily from using so much power, he looked down, and stood stunned.

Everyone on the battlefield would probably expect after a massive attack like that, even Sabashii would be reduced to a broken doll. Yet when the cloud of smoke and dust and stone chips cleared away, the man stood there, having taken the blow with his upper back and shoulders leaned forward. There was a large indented area under him from the impact, but there was more to it than that.

He was a bloody mess, thoroughly beaten up, that's for sure. Still, he pushed his arms up, and struck the man's wrists hard with his fingertips, before lifting the large arms upward. He took a few shaky steps back, and resumed his stance. He popped his shoulders back into place, and muttered quietly, his voice almost inaudible in the loud din of the battlefield,

"Can't be helped, you know, that attack. If I was only as tough as you thought I was, that would have probably killed me. That isn't very sportsmanlike at all. You lost your desire to just win and wanted to do more. You wanted to kill. You wanted to prove your superiority. I didn't want us to have to exchange names, you know. But what you just did, it turned this match from an exchange of strength to a fight to the death. No helping it I guess. I really hate the fact you had to go and be macho. You people, your kind of fighter, I hate your kind of fighter. Oh well. Tell me if you want, but it's fine. I am Sabashii Kokuei. You should know the name of the man who will kill you."

The man's face twisted in anger, and he raised his large arm again, ready to bring it down. Despite his opponent seeming so weakened, the man seemed to have lost control for some reason, and was ready to end more than a fight.

"What did you say, boy?! You, kill me? You're blind! You barely survived that attack, and I can increase my power even more! You'll certainly die now, as I'll show you the..!"

And then he stopped. Try as he might, he couldn't bring his arm down. The veins in his neck and head bulged out, as he struggled hard to move. But he can't. He didn't know why his body wouldn't obey him. He tried to make it obey, but even his internal power wasn't doing what he was telling it to. His energy was fluxing and ebbing, he couldn't make it obey. What was this? Why did his power not answer him? Why would his body not move? He looked down at his enemy, suddenly realizing he'd made a terrible mistake somewhere, but where? The man had hit him weakly, and hadn't expended but a tiny fraction of energy. How could this happen?

"I bet you're wondering why you can't move. Yeah, I probably would too. Then again, you lost control. You turned a battle into a fight to the death. I know that sounds weird, but...there are distinct differences. I guess I made you mad. Yeah, sorry about that. I tend to do that, but usually to fathers and brothers after I deflower their daughters and sisters." The white-haired man chuckled.

"It's too bad, I guess. What I did when I hit you was bind your body. Everytime I touched you, I hit you somewhere that would disrupt the flow of your energy through your body, and cause it to work against you. You see, it's kind of like taking someone who's heavy and muscular, and instead of their muscle mass giving them more power, the weight turns against them and holds them down. This is a technique called Shadowbind. Normally I can do it instantaneously, but I really wanted a worthy fight. Combining specific pressure points with my Shadowbind fashioned into needles, I was able to negate your energy flow and paralyze your body. The needles exist on another plane, so seeing them with normal sight is hard. Since your body was so full of your own power, and unable to feel what I was doing to it for the most part, it was easy to bind you. I was surprised you didn't catch on before you went all Super Saiyan or whatever. Gotta say, I'm disappointed."

As Sabashii talked, the man's eyes just got bigger and bigger, changing from anger, to disbelief, to fear. _Who is this guy..? Shadowbind was a technique that was used only by ancient assassins. It had been lost a long time ago, close to three centuries. Nobody, no normal human had learned the technique since then. Yet this man..not only did he apparently know it, but he used it flawlessly, letting himself get hurt to debilitate his enemy._

Idly, he reflected back to when he'd been hit over and over again. He knew the attack pattern was odd, but he got arrogant. He'd let himself believe that his enemy was weaker, and let him hit him in areas that were vital to his power flow. Nobody had ever done that before; techniques that disrupted the flow of internal power were excessively rare and very hard to use, let alone master. That this man did it without so much as a sweat.

He can only stand and watch helplessly as the white haired man reached into his torn red shirt, and produced a pair of golden gloves with gemstones atop the knuckles. Gingerly, almost lovingly, he put them on, and walked forward. The enlarged bald warrior can only watch in horror as Sabashii stood before him, and just..hit him. The motion is dismissive, casual, but the power behind the punch is like being hit with a solid iron battering ram at high speed. Even paralyzed and rooted as he is, he's pushed back, and grunted.

Again, Sabashii attacked casually, this time just softly striking his knuckles against his enemy's gut, but the tiny motion made a large impact area and made the man cough blood. Over and over he did this, a bland, almost bored look on his face as he punched the poor, paralyzed man to near-death.

"I think you understand now. I don't normally like to use these skills. I especially didn't want to use them in front of my new friends, and I sure didn't want to invoke my powers in front of one of the Mahora Academy's teachers of magic. The magic world and the human world doesn't need to intersect just now. It's a time of chaos. All you fools have accomplished by coming down here and throwing your weight around is possibly make exposing magic a bigger reality. You idiots. You didn't think this would go unnoticed did you? All you did was make a massive ruckus that we have to cover up. You made an action totally contrary to your goal."

He turned slightly, and his eyes bored directly into Gandolfini's. "I went easy on your companion because I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Yet all he accomplished was trying to kill me. There was murderous intent in that attack. I wasn't aware that Mahora's upper rank were murderers now. Still, I have to obey the rules of battle. I was dealt a blow meant to eliminate my life. Therefore, I must respond in kind."

And Sabashii's hand opened, a ball of blue aura appearing in his hand. The little ball floated above his palm, and despite the size of the ball, it seemed to contain a large amount of force. Gesturing, Sabashii sent the little crackling, pulsing sphere floating across to his opponent.

It didn't touch him, it floated about an inch away from his chest. Sabashii stepped back then, about thirty or fourty feet, and looked flatly at the large man. He extended his arm and muttered softly, and the sky above darkened. Rapidly. The sound of thunder was heard, and lightning flashed down, striking several points on the ground, mostly randomly. Black ribbons of energy with silver runes flashing in them swirled around the chanting white haired man, making a whirling tapestry of negative energy. It didn't take long for two figures to recognize it. Gandolfini, and Nealla, now wandering out of the front entrance of the building.

She spoke up the first of the two, "That blue energy, the pulse of power... That spell... It's a form of the Ultima magic, but I've never heard of an Ultima that's so condensed. It loses none of its power, but it occupies such a small area of space. It's incredible..."

And Gandolfini murmurs, horrified, his eyes as wide as saucers, "That power... That is the power of mana. The energy form of Wicked Darkness... But no human can control that power. Only the strongest of the magi are able to tap into that energy form, yet he uses it so effortlessly. It's impossible!"

Sabashii turned his head towards the older magician. _So that man knows._ He sighed. That will take some explaining. Maybe he can pass it off. He'll have to go extra evil, to scare his new friends out of asking unnecessary questions. He also knows it might turn them from him, but that's no big deal. He's used to having no one. He's always been alone since that time, and it won't bother him a bit. His voice echoes as he speaks.

"O Darkness within the heart of the living, gather your wickedness in this unworthy vessel. Truth of the black sky, embedded in the night, awaken in the hearts of men and inspire only chaos. Sunder the bonds of flesh and blood and cut spirits apart with blades of hatred. Explosive rage in the eternal pits, vengeance of those slighted in Hell, rise up, spread your bony fingers and bring the chill of death.."

And his hand opened, fingers splayed, as the rune-covered ribbons leapt onto the blue sphere, the energies merging rapidly, the ball becoming black, silver and blue, and inverting into a tiny little speck in the center of folded space, before his voice rings out, flat, quiet, sinister.

"Negative Ultima Crasher."

That's all it took. There was an eruption of energy, a massive one. The dome spread thirty, forty, fifty, more. It grew and grew, spiraling upward into a gigantic sphere of black force. And then it spun around like a top, condensing into one small ten foot zone of energy, that exploded violently; the actual attack form.

A pillar of black and red force rose upward, parting the clouds in the sky, making the sky itself look red, as if it was set aflame. The force of the explosion caused a wind to rush through, a shockwave from the impact and the force released, blowing everyone off of their feet, or at the very least, pushing them back against something. It was very much like being in the midst of a hurricane that sprang up all at once, with the trees being blown about, wood and shrapnel from the building tossed all over the place.

And when the red, blinding light clears away, Sabashii was standing there, his hand still extended, unmoved from his spot. Where his opponent was, there was only a small pool of black, bubbling liquid. It might be blood, or something else entirely. Either way, it's very apparent that his opponent is more than dead. He'd been completely obliterated.

"So let it be done."

Gandolfini's face was a study in absolute horror. _No!_ he thought. _That was...the power of wicked darkness mana? What fools we were to think we could defeat any powerful enough for this man to decide to ally himself with._ Attempting to calm himself, he sent a telepathic message to Sister Shakti, the nun who had defeated Lorenzo. _Gather our fallen. We must retreat. We cannot hope to win here._

_Understood,_ came the mental reply.

Standing up from behind his cover, Gandolfini turned toward Haruka, who was coolly keeping him covered with her Beretta, and in an equally-calm manner, unchambered the next round of his Desert Eagle and safetied the weapon, then holstered it. "The defeat is ours," he told her nonchalantly. "We will withdraw."

Nodding, Haruka raised her weapon to point the barrel toward the sky. "Don't let us catch you in our city again," she said evenly, but there was no mistaking the threat evident in her tone: _Otherwise, we'll sic Sabashii on you and tell him not to hold back._

Gandolfini nodded in return and, pausing to ensure that the others had already departed, leapt into the air toward the east, disappearing behind the forests of Hinata Onsen.

"It seems we won," Nealla said.

"And you know what that means," Seno replied with a grin.

Kaolla's doppelganger gave him a blank stare. "No, actually, I don't."

"I imagine it means that it's time for the fanfare and our individual victory poses," Sabashii guessed, joining the group that consisted of Mutsumi, Motoko, Seno, Haruka, and Nealla.

"Good call!" the swordsman replied, then drew his sword out of its scabbard and raised it toward the sky.

"I'm game," Sabashii said, taking a position to Seno's right, a few feet behind and out from him, and facing outwards, before gazing up at the sky, lost in his own thoughts now.

"Ara, ara, sounds like fun!" Mutsumi exclaimed, taking the mirroring position on Seno's left side. She then planted her quarterstaff into the ground in front of her and clapped her hands happily.

"I refuse to participate in this," Motoko said, turning away as she crossed her arms and shook her head. Unfortunately, she was inadvertantly participating anyway, as she was standing a few feet directly behind Seno to form the fourth side of their little box.

Haruka produced a cigarette pack from her pocket and pulled out a cancer stick, then stuck it between her teeth and began to search for her lighter. Beside her, Nealla casually flicked a minor Fire spell at the end of the cigarette, lighting it for the older woman. "I guess that can be our victory pose," Haruka said, dead-pan.

--

_May 4, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
1839 hours, local time_

"Did you guys _really_ do a victory pose box?" Naru asked, staring incredulously at Kitsune as the pair sat in the slightly-damaged living room, the latter listening to the story told by the former.

"Can you honestly say you're surprised?" Haruka retorted, calmly puffing on her cigarette.

"Only that you willingly took part in it," Naru shot back. She sighed and shook her head. "Man, I leave you guys alone for a few hours..."

"Things probably would've got more fucked up if you'd been here, you know," Seno said. "You're pretty good at flying off the handle."

Scoffing, Naru brushed off Seno's comment and stood up, turning toward the kitchen. "So you guys kept that girl Mei from escaping, right? You guys are sure that it's really my step-sister?"

"As sure as your wings are white," Kitsune replied. "Go on and have a look for yourself."

Nodding, Naru swept into the kitchen to find that it _was_ none other than her step-sister who was restrained by the magic chains of Nealla's Bind spell, except now she was seated in a chair, rather than lying on the floor, and her face looked mostly healed of whatever damage Shinobu had done to her with that stir-fry skillet. The siblings' eyes widened as they fell on each other, and Mei was the first to look away.

Steeling herself, Naru stepped forward, crossed her arms under her chest, and gave Mei her sternest glare. "Okay, Mei, tell me what's going on here," she said. "Why did you and those others come here to try and arrest us or whatever it was you were here for?"

"Umm, Naru, she can't answer you," Shinobu said from beside the chair that held Mei. "I've been keeping her Silenced so that she can't cast magic to escape."

"Then how are we supposed to get anything out of her!?"

From the other room, Sabashii stood and held up his hand. "Hold on, I've got the solution to this predicament." And with that, he disappeared up the stairs. As he departed, the others gathered around in the kitchen.

"So..." Seno said as he entered, resting his sheathed sword on his right shoulder. "What do we do about _this_ one?" He reared back his boot and kicked the chair that Lorenzo was tied to, right next to Mei.

"We're thinkin' that he fed those Mahora guys info on us, right?" Kitsune asked.

Naru blanched. "How'd you make _that_ connection?"

"They show up only a few weeks after he gets here," Motoko explained. "On top of that, what's a civilian doing with a modified, military-grade battle rifle, which is illegal under current law."

"Like any of the weapons we have here _are_ legal..." Haruka calmly stated.

Right about that time, Sabashii returned and stood at the doorway entrance, holding a faintly-glowing stone in his hand. "Right, so what we do is, Shinobu casts Silena, and then I fling this in there to gum up any further use of magic."

Seno eyed the stone. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Manufactured nethicite," the white-haired man grinned. "Effective magic canceler."

"How convenient," Nealla said calmly. "Where do you get this stuff?"

Sabashii shrugged. "Hot spring turtles, mate."

At just that moment, Tama landed on Sabashii's head and went "Myuh?"

"An answer for the ages, if there ever was one," Seno said. "So let's get on with this, aye?"

Nodding, Shinobu turned toward Mei, summoning up her latent magical energy as a gust of wind breezed through the room. After a moment, she waved her hand toward Mei and called out, "Silena!" A half-second later, the fragment of manufactured nethicite clattered to the ground beneath Mei's chair, thrown in by Sabashii.

"Now, Mei, what's the big idea?" Naru asked.

"I-I'm sorry, nee-san," she replied, wringing her hands together. "I was only doing what I was ordered to do."

"By whom?"

"The Mahora Academy magic society," Haruka filled in. "Apparently, it's a group of powerful mages that consider us a threat to them."

"Not directly," Mei replied, "though, judging by what took place here today, clearly all of you _are_ a considerable threat." She cleared her throat. "No, we were sent after you because your actions have been drawing undue attention to the magic world which, for better or for worse, all of you are now a part of."

"Mei, you were there with us when all that crap went down at Pararakelse," Seno said. "That guy, Namusan what-the-hell-ever? I get the feeling he's not dead yet, and then there's still that..." His face contorting into a scowl of rage, Seno clenched his fist and trailed off, leaving Kawakami Gensai's name unspoken.

"What my husband is trying to get at," Motoko took over, only maintaining her own composure through a visible force of will, "is that we were somewhat expecting you would have _explained_ our situation to these Mahora mages."

"I did," Mei replied. "But the circumstances of your magical awakening doesn't make you exempt from following the laws of mage society."

"So...what are they going to do now?" Naru asked.

"I'm not sure," her step-sister answered, looking at the ground. "They will almost certainly register all of you as a group of rogue mages, but whether or not they decide to come back after you, I don't know."

"If they do, they'll likely bring more and powerful mages with them," Haruka pointed out, puffing her cigarette. "I don't know about any of you, but I'd rather not get into an extended war with a bunch of more-experienced mages."

"Especially considerin' we got more important things we need to worry about," Kitsune agreed. "Like findin' out whether that Namusan guy is still alive or not."

"Oh, he's still alive," Sabashii said, leaning against the doorframe with a scowl. "He won't be an easy enemy to kill, at all."

"Wait," Mei said, looking at the white-haired man. "Are you talking about Namusan Sapou, the Heaven-Slayer?"

Sabashii regarded her with an evaluative stare. "...You know of him?"

"Only by his legend," she answered. "So that was him on that beach?"

"I wouldn't know, I wasn't there," Sabashii answered with a shrug. "From what I've heard, I'd say it was."

Mei paled considerably. "Then, that is a grave thing indeed. I'm sure if I informed the magic society that he has been freed, and that all of you stand opposed to him, that you would be left alone for a time, as Namusan Sapou is a far greater threat."

"Man, we must suck then," Seno commented off-hand, earning him a flicked ear from Motoko. He cleared his throat. "Well, before anything else, I'd just like to clear something up." Unsheathing his wakizashi from its scabbard on his right hip, Seno walked over to Lorenzo and grabbed a handful of the older man's hair, pulling his head back and placing the blade against his throat. "So tell me, Mei, just how is it that the Mahora mages learned of our presence? Awfully suspicious, that you would attack us less than a month after this man arrived here. Is he one of yours, or should I just kill him now?"

The young red-haired girl gave him an even look, looking between the swordsman and the gunslinger. "He's not our man, kill him if you like."

"Oh, well, I think I just might anyway."

Sighing, Haruka flicked her spent cigarette into a nearby trash can. "Let him go, Seno, he's got nothing to do with Mahora."

"I'm sensing a 'but,' and I'm not talking about the one you just threw away."

She nodded. "But he is a spy," she affirmed. "He works for the CIA's paranormal investigation Department 13. Seems the United States has built up an impressive profile on all of us over the years and figures we had something to do with the incident on Pararakelse."

"Which we did," Motoko said.

"Which we did," Haruka answered with a nod. "And they sent him to keep an eye on us. To what point and purpose, I'd assume that they'd want to ensure we don't pose a threat to their national security."

Shaking his head and swearing violently, Seno stepped away from Lorenzo and sheathed his wakizashi. "Damn figures everything would go to piss around here the day that Keitaro takes off..." he grumbled.


	16. The Ties That Bind

**A/N:** There was quite a delay in getting this one out to the public, but this chapter consisted of little but establishing strong ties between _Love Hina_ and _Negima_, and laying out some villain backstory, so it was a chore to work on at times. Add on to the fact that I picked up an XBox 360 and a bajillion games for it about halfway through this chapter, so I got distracted. Besides, I had figured the string of quick uploads for the last four before this were more luck than anything else. Updates should come about once a month now under normal circumstances, give or take.

* * *

**Chapter XV:  
Magical Clusterfuck, Take 2!**

**The Ties That Bind**

_Two children wearing the distinctive red and white training clothing of Shinmeiryu laughed as they ran and played across the unused training grounds of the mountain dojo. The taller, older child stopped suddenly, leaning over and putting her hands on her knees to catch her breath from all the running they had been doing._

"_Aneue?" the shorter girl asked, tugging on the older one's sleeve. "I heard Tsuruko-neesama saying that I was going to leave the dojo soon. Am I, aneue?"_

_The taller girl knelt down and placed her hand on the other girl's head, ruffling her hair. "You're going to stay with some nice people for a while," she told her. "They have a little girl that's your age, so you'll have a new friend to play with."_

_The girl's grip tightened on her sleeve. "But I don't wanna go!" she argued. "I want to stay here and play with aneue and Tsuruko-neesama!"_

"_It'll be okay," the taller girl said, running her fingers through the younger girl's hair in a soothing manner. "You won't be gone forever. And you'll still be coming back here to train with us. The truth is, this is actually your first mission. The Kansai Magic Association has asked us to send one of our younger members to watch over and befriend their leader's daughter. Do you think you can handle it?"_

_Schooling her features into a cute expression of determination, even though tears were still gathered in the corners of her eyes, the little girl nodded. "I can, aneue!" she proclaimed._

"_That's a good girl," the older girl said, pulling the younger into a hug. "You make me so proud of you."_

_The little girl giggled and clung tightly to the girl's gi. "I want to grow up big and strong like you, aneue!"_

"_You will, Setsuna," the older girl said with a smile. "You will..."_

---

_May 5, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0555 hours_

In the dimness of the pre-dawn light, Motoko opened her eyes slowly, staring up at the ceiling. Beside her, she could hear Seno's slow, rhythmic breathing, indicating he was still deeply asleep. Letting her eyes slip partially shut, she allowed herself to revel in these quiet few moments of laziness before she would have to get up.

_That dream..._ she mused. _Those events took place seven years ago. I wonder why I'm dreaming of them now, all of a sudden. Perhaps because of those teachers from Mahora? I'd heard from aneue that she had moved to Tokyo to attend Mahora Academy..._

She blinked, raising her arm from where it rested on her forehead and lowering it to lay against her stomach. A wry smile twisted her mouth. _It's only natural to assume that Mahora has employed Setsuna in the ranks of its magic society, even though she has no magical talent to speak of. I wonder, if it is her they will be sending after us next. After all this time, I wonder if she could bring herself to raise sword against me._

"You know, you should probably go to the bathroom if you're so messed up that you've got that kind of look on your face," her husband's voice sounded from beside her.

She looked over to see Seno watching her with one eye open, his arm draped over his head, and grinning irritably at her. "I was just thinking about who Mahora might send after us next," she said.

"I doubt they will," he replied, turning to lay on his back. "At least, not anytime soon. We gave them one hell of a beating, and Sabashii and that super-overdrive of his... Damn. Needless to say, I think they'll leave us alone for a while."

Turning onto her side, she snuggled up against him, resting her head on his shoulder and laying her arm over his stomach. "You're probably right," she agreed. "And speaking of Sabashii, what are we going to do about him? It's obvious he's incredibly powerful, and there's no telling what could happen if he suddenly turned against us."

"I don't even want to _think_ about that," he answered, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and laying his head against hers. "He's been a cool bastard, but now it's just kinda creepy."

She hummed lightly in agreement, closing her eyes. "I think now would be a good time for a bath," she said out of the blue. "Are you going to join me?"

"Let's wait a few minutes," he replied. He paused for theatric effect, then explained, "I'm having a lazy moment."

Motoko only laughed lightly in response.

---

_May 5, 2007  
Mahora Academy, Japan  
0615 hours_

A somber group had gathered in the headmaster's office early that morning. Along with the survivors of the original "Mahora Ten" were a number of other mage teachers and students. Though barely even a fraction of the total magic-inclined population at Mahora, the dozen or so gathered in that room represented the city-academy's best and brightest.

"...And that is pretty much the gist of our encounter at the Hinata-S?," Gandolfini concluded the tale of their total defeat, then resumed his seat.

For several moments, there was silence as the shock of such a powerful group of mages having existed practically right next door to them without their being aware of it set in. A slightly-scruffy teacher with spiked, short blond hair and glasses grinned irritably. "One thing that I have to admit, is that this Sabashii fellow had a good point," he said. "You guys did cause a lot of unnecessary ruckus by going and trying to apprehend them."

"We have since realized the foolishness of our actions, Takahata-san," Gandolfini replied icily. "Underscored by the death of Yakanatama-sensei."

Takahata glanced toward the headmaster. "Will there be any attempts to bring this man to justice for murder?"

"I do not believe so," the headmaster replied, running a hand over his lengthy white beard. "If we are to believe the video provided to us by Asakura-san, then it was Yakanatama-sensei who first used lethal force against this man Sabashii. He was wholly justified in using lethal force to defend his own life."

Gandolfini turned his gaze toward the red-haired schoolgirl that had been following the Hinata tenants in the airport when they had seen off Keitaro the previous day. "Asakura Kazumi-san," he stated. "How is it that you managed to be in a position to record most of the battle that occurred, and yet neither we nor the opposition were aware of your presence? More importantly, _why_ were you there to begin with?"

Blinking rapidly, the self-appointed journalist of Class 3-A's eyes widened as she struggled to come up with a good excuse to explain away the fact that she'd been stalking the Hinata-S?'s residents. "I, uh, you see, well..."

"I asked her to go," spoke a young voice with an English accent. All eyes turned to the youngest person in the room, a young boy of obvious European descent who exuded an air of authority. "I had heard of a famous hot springs inn on Sagami Bay and asked Kazumi-san to look into it as a possible idea for the next class field trip."

"Oh, nobody told you, Negi-kun?" Takahata asked, either oblivious to or uncaring that the boy, Negi, was lying through his teeth. "Hinata-S? became an all-girls' dormitory about ten years ago. The owner seems to have kept that under wraps, so it's not really a surprise that you didn't know."

"Oh, really?" Negi replied, scratching the back of his head. He turned and bowed toward Kazumi. "Sorry I wasted your time then, Kazumi-san."

Gandolfini narrowed his eyes, but otherwise seemed satisfied with Kazumi's excuse for having been present at the battle. "Regardless, I believe that we should prepare for the possibility that they may make a retaliatory strike against this academy."

The blonde nun who had been defeated by Seno nudged Mei lightly, her other arm held protectively over her bandaged stomach. "Hey, Mei-chan, your step-sister lives there, right? Do you think they'd strike at us?"

Mei shook her head. "Not at all," she answered. "They almost certainly want to be left alone. They don't want to have anything to do with us."

"I do not believe we can take your words at face value, Mei-chan," Kuzunoha said. "After all, you are extremely close to one of them. Your opinion could be biased, and that runs the risk of jeopardizing our students."

Standing next to the Shinmei instructor, the bearded man with sunglasses calmly adjusted said sunglasses. "I think you're mistaken, Touko-san," he replied calmly. "If anyone is biased, it's you. Young Mei-san is possessed of a calmness beyond her years, and very likely knows her own half-sister better than you give her credit for. I imagine that _you_, on the other hand, are hoping that they attack us, in some sort of desire for retribution against that swordswoman that held you off capably while unarmed, and then handily defeated you once she regained her blade."

Among the students, the eyes of a girl with her long black hair pulled into a ponytail on the left side of her head widened. _Kuzunoha-sensei was defeated easily? I wonder who this swordswoman could be..._

"That's preposterous, Kataragi-sensei!" Kuzunoha snapped back. "What about that foreign mage that beat you so easily? Don't you want to get her back?"

"Not at all," he answered evenly, sliding his hands into his pants pockets. "Despite her age, her skill with spellslinging was obviously superior to mine. That ability she used to be able to cast so quickly and efficiently, without apparent energy cost or the ability to interrupt, is something I would wish to learn from her."

The headmaster smiled. "Such a pinnacle of grace even in defeat, Kataragi-sensei," he said, nodding to the younger man. "It is why you are so well-respected at this academy, of course."

Kataragi bowed in return. "Thank you for your kind words, Headmaster."

Young Natsume timidly raised her hand.

"Yes, Natsume-san?" the headmaster asked, waving his hand toward her.

"There is also the matter," she said quietly, "of the woman that I fought. I believe that she is the Yochi no Kouken. And that, if she is, then the ones she fights with are the Heroes Chosen by the Gods of legend."

A murmur ran through the gathering. Negi leaned over to the girl with her hair in a left-side ponytail and whispered, "Setsuna-san, what legend?"

"I'll tell you later, Negi-sensei," she whispered back.

Even Kataragi was skeptical of Natsume's claim. "What proof do you have?"

"Umm, very little," she replied, poking her index fingers together. "She mentioned something about the Guardians, using the specific plural, and she knew my name without being told it."

"That's not very substantive evidence," Takahata said, smiling in an attempt to not intimidate Natsume, even though he also doubted her. "Do you have anything else?"

"She's telling the truth," Mei interjected, steel underlaying her words. "The woman's name is Otohime Mutsumi-san, and she is the Yochi no Kouken, as much as those she fought alongside are the Chosen Heroes."

"Again, Sakura-san, what proof do you have of this claim?" Gandolfini pressed.

"I was there almost a year ago, on Pararakelse Island," she answered, lifting her chin in an expression of defiance. "I was there when their destinies were revealed to them, when their powers were awakened by the powers of the Lifestream contained within a local Streammind."

"The creatures that embody the collective consciousness of the planet's Lifestream?" Takahata asked, surprise in his voice. "Are you sure that's what you supposedly saw?"

"As surely as I see you standing in front of me, Takahata-sensei."

At that moment, a knock sounded on the door, followed by another mage teacher entering the room, a number of manila envelopes tucked under his arm. Starting from the back of the room, he began to pass out the envelopes to everyone in the room, explaining as he did so, "My apologies for not having these documents prepared on time. It was a little bit of a hassle to get all the information we wanted from our friends in the American government."

"Do not trouble yourself, Seruhiko-san," the headmaster said, lifting a hand toward the man. "You have done quite well to gather this much information in the short time you were given." He accepted the last envelope, but placed it neatly on his desk before him without opening it up. "As you can see, what you are holding in your hands is a collection of dossiers, the most complete and up-to-date information we have been able to collect on these individuals, gathered from a number of sources."

After flipping through several of the files, Gandolfini looked to the headmaster and adjusted his glasses. "Even as it stands, some of this information is outdated, and some of their special abilities are not listed because they apparently were hitherto unknown," he said. "That makes this group especially dangerous, as changing as a violent storm on the darkest of nights."

Takahata chuckled. "That sounds like a pretty good name for them as a group," he said. "_Kuro Arashi_. The storm of blackest night."

To this, no one had anything to say.

"Well, I'm glad we're in agreement," Takahata said. "So from now on, we'll call these guys _Kuro Arashi_."

The young girl with her hair pulled into a left-side ponytail carefully scanned the dossier files, committing each name and face to memory. Then she flipped the profile of Kaolla Su to the bottom of the stack, and came face-to-face with Motoko's image. Her eyes widened in shock. _Is...is that really...?_

Without a word, the girl shot to her feet, fielding the dossiers under her right arm, bowed toward the headmaster, and then proceeded to bolt out of his office.

"Setsuna-san?!" Negi called after her.

"Negi, look at this," another girl with long red hair pulled into a pair of ponytails with bells decorating them said, tugging on the boy teacher's sleeve and holding Motoko's dossier with her other hand.

"What is it, Asuna-san?" he asked, turning toward her.

"Look here, under the family listing," Asuna replied, pointing with her finger.

And Negi proceeded to do just that. "Oh, I see," he said. "So that's why she took off..."

---

_May 5, 2007  
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
0733 hours, local time_

Finishing off a healthy sip of his tea, Sabashii gently and quietly set down the cup and glanced around, noting the direct stares that each of the tenants were giving him. Coughing into his fist, he closed his eyes and asked, "So, is there any reason why we have chosen the hot springs as the location of my interrogation?"

Surely enough, the entire crew, clad in various bathing suits, had gathered in the hot springs after breakfast. At first, there was no outward indication that the hot springs were now fed by a natural Lifestream well, aside from the water carrying an extremely-light blue color, unusual for such shallow water. But as soon as the tenants had entered the water, they felt as if all their aches and pains, all their injuries and maladies, had instantly vanished. The healing power of the Lifestream, Mutsumi had explained.

Directly across from Sabashii, Seno sat leaning back against the rocks ringing the hot springs, his right leg stretched out beneath the water, his left bent up so that his knee protruded above the surface. Motoko sat between her husband's legs, her left arm laid over his knee, her head resting on her arm.

"We're in Hinata," Seno said with a smirk, leaning his head to the right. "Nothing we do around here ever makes sense. I mean, come on. Picking a fight with a bunch of people that came to arrest us?"

Motoko nodded, raising herself off his knee to lean back against him. "Taking off after the landlord to an out-of-the-way island we know nothing about."

"Farewell parties in the hot springs," Naru commented, leaning against the rocks a few feet to Seno and Motoko's left.

Right next to Naru, Kitsune piped up, "Kaolla's nutty inventions."

"Partying every other weekend," Haruka said in her usual deadpan tone, leaning against the rocks nearest the changing area.

"The dichotomy of good and evil!" Mutsumi exclaimed from beside the tea shop proprietor.

At this, silence fell over the hot springs as everyone stared at Mutsumi's sudden comment, broken only by the wooden knocking sound of the souzu striking the rocks. After several such moments of silence, Mutsumi looked around at the staring, sometimes incredulous, expressions.

"Ara, is there something on my face?"

"Minus five points, turtle lady," Kaolla said matter-of-factly, one finger stuck in her mouth and an expression akin to that of a confused kitten on her face.

Sabashii raised a finger. "And, of course, fighting the Heaven-Slayer," he said. "Can't forget to add that to the list of senseless actions."

Reaching his left hand forward, Seno gently brushed his fingertips along Motoko's spine, nearly causing her to purr in pleasure from the sensation. "We're not responsible for that," he said. "The little bastard dragged him into our personal fight. The inevitable ass-kicking that's got his name on it is his own responsibility."

The white-haired man grinned. "True enough." He reached back to pick up his cup of tea and took another sip, allowing the warmth from both within and without to sober his mood. "So. It seems I owe all of you some semblance of an explanation."

He paused, waiting to see if anyone had anything to say to that, but the group was merely watching him, their expressions waiting, expectant. With a shrug, he launched into it.

"As far as my straight-up combat skills are concerned, I was taught to fight by a master of the ancient arts of the assassins. This man taught me both martial arts, and his secret arts." The looks that passed between several of his newfound friends did not go unnoticed by him. He recognized the looks of fear, that skills like his could so freely be taught. "You need not fear. No one else will ever learn that which I know."

"Why not?" Haruka asked, flicking an expended cigarette butt into a nearby trashcan with perfect precision. Without looking.

"My master's final test for me was a deathmatch, no holds barred, using everything he had taught me." He paused to set his tea cup down on the rocks beside him. "You can see before you the outcome of that contest."

"That does explain your unarmed combat skill," Motoko said, grabbing Seno's hands and moving them to encircle her waist so she could concentrate. "But that form of magic you used. 'Wicked darkness mana,' I believe that man Gandolfini called it?"

The assassin tensed slightly, but quickly forced himself to relax. "Toe-may-to, toe-mah-to," he said nonchalantly, waving his left hand dismissively. "Magic is magic is magic. It all depends on what system you used to learn it, and your own abilities. The system we use as heroes seems to rely on casting time and magic points, or as we gamers call it, MP. Similar to what you see in _Final Fantasy X_ and _Final Fantasy XI_, for example. We have access to very powerful magic, but the use of said magic is very rigid, unlike the incanted style that the Mahorans seemed to use. With their style, you could do things like incant a spell beforehand and have it ready to be instantly cast at a later point. You could also change the target of your magic and redirect it in midstrike, things that we generally can't do with our style of magic."

"And what about mana?" Shinobu asked, tilting her head to the left, curiosity written all across her face. Recently, she'd been getting more and more interested in the subject of magic; the young girl was taking to her status as a mage like a duck to water.

"Mana is a very, very ancient style of magic, supposedly dating back even before humans," Sabashii explained. "It's said that mana is the direct form of magic used by God, Himself. It is the magic that He infused into the Lifestream in order to direct it to create life."

"Contrary to what you may think," Mutsumi said, picking up the tale, "life was born not of light, but of darkness."

"No kidden?" Kitsune asked.

The World Guardian nodded her head. "In the original mana, the magicks of light and darkness are both subdivided into separate categories. Light divides into primordial and holy, darkness into primordial and wicked. Primordial darkness is the darkness of the universe, from which life was born. Primordial light is the light of true Judgment, which burns all things, evil or not." She smiled faintly. "Modern mages' inability to differentiate between primordial and holy light is the reason why modern 'holy' magic will still work against things that are not inherently evil."

"Wicked darkness," Sabashii continued, "is obviously, the darkness of evil and destruction. Now right now, I'm sure some of you are wondering if I'm evil, because I use wicked darkness mana. Well, before you ask me that, let me ask some questions of you. Motoko, you use a blade that houses a sealed demon. Does that make you evil? Seno, I am told that you once housed an evil spirit in your body. Does that make you evil? Naru, you once unjustly persecuted the man you now love. Does that make you evil?"

He shrugged slightly. "I'm not asking you not to judge me," he said. "I'll be the first to tell you that I have indeed done some cruel and wicked things in my life. I'm very likely the most morally-challenged out of all of us, but you could say I've turned over a new leaf. It's not like I'm out to correct all the injustices in the world. I just think that a little bit of my evil might be necessary to make the world a better place by removing a greater evil."

"The Heaven-Slayer's evil," Mutsumi said, staring intently at the white-haired man. "I believe I speak for everyone here when I say absolution is something that is not beyond the reach of any man who is willing to work toward atonement."

Sabashii met her gaze with just as much strength. "Can you promise me that redemption, Yochi no Kouken?"

She smiled faintly. "If not I, then I may know one or two who can."

From where she was sitting, Shinobu swayed forward slightly, tightly shutting her eyes and placing her left hand to her forehead. She groaned quietly, sliding down into the water.

Naru, the closest person to her, leaned over and laid a hand on the girl's head. "Shinobu, you okay?"

"I don't know," the young domestic engineer replied. "My eyes hurt, and I have a splitting headache."

"Let me see," Naru said gently, tilting the blue-haired girl's chin up toward her. "Open your eyes, Shinobu."

When the white mage complied, Naru neatly recoiled in shock. As the others caught sight of Shinobu's eyes, they likewise reacted with surprise. Her normally-dark blue eyes had become light lavender, and her pupils were nowhere to be seen.

"What is this?" Shinobu asked, blinking, as she looked around at everyone. "I can't see anyone. All I see are blotches of white. And...some other colors, but mostly white."

Closing her own eyes, Nealla focused her senses on Shinobu and concentrated. "She seems to be using some sort of sensing ability... Shinobu, try and focus on me."

"Okay..." the white mage replied unsteadily. "I...see a large amount of magic. A lot of white, like I said before. But now I can see your shape, and a color. It's sort of...creme-colored, and the white is sort of like an aura around you."

The MolMolian black mage nodded. "As I suspected," she said. "This change in your eyes is related to a visual aura sensing ability you seem to have developed. With a little practice, I imagine it could function as well for you as a Scan spell."

"Looks like she's got Byakkugan," Sabashii commented off-hand. At the silence that ensued, he looked directly at Seno. "What, not a Naruto fan?"

"Nah, not my cup of tea," the swordsman answered.

As Nealla and Shinobu continued to work on Shinobu's newfound ability, Naru suddenly tensed up, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Raising her right hand out of the water, she formed a blade of holy energy in her hand. "I sense a demon," she said suddenly.

That set most of the group scattering to where they had left their weapons just inside the hot springs; they had learned better than to be caught without their weapons nearby or easily accessible after yesterday's incident. Motoko, however, had a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Can you tell what kind?" she asked. "And if it's a full demon or a hanyou?"

Naru closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. "A bird demon, it seems," she said after that moment passed. "And it doesn't seem strong enough to be a full adult demon."

The faintest hint of a smirk crossed Motoko's lips as she stood up, accepting the Youto Hina that Seno was holding out to her. "Leave this to me," she said, then leapt up and over the retaining wall of the hot springs, toward the stairs leading up to Hinata-S?.

Kitsune chuckled. "Looks like demon-hunter Motoko's back in business," she said, tucking her twin daggers under her arm as she walked toward the changing rooms. "I gotta watch this."

---

The pony-tailed girl had been able to sense a residual feeling of magic from the minute she'd stepped off the train at Hinata Onsen. The closer she'd gotten to the Hinata, the stronger it had gotten. By the time she was halfway up the steps, the air was fairly-well charged with magic energy. It was a pleasant feeling, not in any way oppressive, and she could tell why her aneue would've chosen to stay here.

Almost too late, she sensed an incoming attack. Rolling backwards, she pulled her nodachi from where it rested on her back, ripping the fabric covering off of it and sliding off the hard wood sheath at the same time. With precious little time left, she settled herself into a kneel, the blade of her war sword pointed out to intercept the incoming strike with the hard clash of steel against steel.

Before she could counter, her attacker flipped away, sailing gracefully through the air to alight on top of a lamp post at the entrance landing. Now with plenty of distance separating them, the girl took the time to study her enemy. She blushed slightly as she realized that her enemy was a very beautiful woman wearing an almost-risque bathing suit, with long, night-black hair flowing gently in the wind behind her.

The girl's eyes widened, and even as she watched, a familiar yellow crane landed on her attacker's left shoulder, squawking toward the younger girl. "Ts-Tsuruko-neesama!?" she muttered. "W-what are you doing here?"

The woman laughed lightly and smiled toward the girl. "Do I truly resemble aneue so?" she asked. "I suppose I do. But you're mistaken, Setsuna."

"Hah," a male voice called out from the apartment entrance. "Never thought I'd see the day you got mistaken for Tsuruko, hon."

The woman turned back and shrugged. "It's inevitable, really," she replied. "I look the same that aneue did when she was my age."

"Aneue!" the girl, Setsuna, shouted. Her face was as red as her school uniform, and she was standing in the classic pose of one who wanted to say something but was embarrassed to do so. "I...I..."

Motoko smiled at her, resting the Youto Hina on her free shoulder. "You've become a lovely young lady," she said. "And skilled, to boot, to use a nodachi as your weapon of choice."

A white-haired man wearing nothing but white dress pants appeared at the top of the landing, giving Setsuna a critical eye. "You wear a Mahora uniform," he said. "Have you come attempting to finish what they began yesterday?"

Motoko shot him a terse look. "I doubt that's the reason for her visit, Sabashii," she told him.

"I simply wish to make sure," Sabashii replied with a shrug. "To know if there's going to be a fight, so we can get it over with, or if there won't be, so we can invite her in for tea."

Chuckling, Motoko turned back to Setsuna. "What is the reason for your visit?" she asked.

"I...came to see you," the girl answered quietly.

Motoko smiled again. "Well, come in then," she said. "We all just came out of the hot springs, so give us a few minutes to make ourselves decent and then we'll all have a nice little chat."

---

_Fifteen minutes later_

Setsuna found herself seated in a recliner in the living room, a tray of tea and snacks on the table in the center of the room, surrounded by Motoko and ten other people she didn't know, all arranged variously on other couches and chairs in the immediate area. Well, perhaps she knew them a little more than they were aware; she _had_ studied their dossiers on the train ride over from Mahora, after all.

"So who is she, Motoko?" the one called Naru asked, giving Setsuna a friendly smile.

Standing behind her, Motoko placed her hands on Setsuna's shoulders and said, "Everyone, this is my baby sister, Setsuna Sakurazaki."

The room all but exploded with noise as all the tenants tried to welcome her at the same time. After a few moments of this chaos, and by some unspoken agreement that underscored how well they cooperated as a group, they decided to go down the ranks from Setsuna's left to her right.

First was the white-haired man, Sabashii. She barely repressed a shiver as he gave her an evaluative stare. Then he gave her a knowing smile, stood, and bowed slightly in her direction. "Kokuei Sabashii," he introduced himself. "Welcome to Hinata-S?. It's a little crazy around here, but I doubt that'd put you off."

With that, he moved to walk around her chair and wander off to another part of the building, but not before giving her hair a playful ruffle in passing.

Next was the chain-smoking woman, Haruka. She took a puff of her cigarette, then lowered it down and nodded to Setsuna. "Urashima Haruka. I run the Tea Shop down the stairs, and I'm sort of the matron around here. Nice to meet you."

The blue-haired girl next to Haruka stood, and then bowed politely. This one was the one that had clocked Mei with a stir-fry skillet; obviously not one to be underestimated despite her age and demure demeanor. "My name is Maehara Shinobu. We never knew Motoko had a younger sister." She bowed again, and then sat.

A ball of hyperactivity in human form was seated on the end of the couch directly opposite Setsuna. As her turn came up, she grinned and waved exaggeratedly at the pony-tailed girl. "Hiyas! I'm Kaolla Su. Are you afraid of turtles like Motoko? If you're not, you can help me catch Tama and cook her for supper!"

Setsuna blinked at that 'introduction,' even as a green-and-yellow turtle literally _flew_ into the room and landed on Shinobu's head, raising a flipper in greeting at the new girl.

"There ya are, you little devil!" Kaolla exclaimed, pouncing at the turtle and inadvertantly tackling Shinobu over the back of the couch in the process. A small melee ensued as Kaolla attempted to wrangle the turtle while Shinobu tried to get free of the obstinate foreigner.

Setsuna looked up at Motoko standing behind her. "Aneue, is this normal?"

The Shinmeiryu heir smirked slightly. "Actually, this seems to be a pretty calm morning." Shippu on her shoulder squawked in agreement.

Paling considerably, Setsuna turned back to face the next person. She looked almost identical to the young girl that had just tackled a turtle and her friend over the couch, and therefore had to be Nealla. She was wearing clothing that appeared to be inspired by an Arabian design, idly strumming a sitar that rested in her lap. She nodded her head toward Setsuna. "My name is Nealla Su. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

The fox-eyed Kitsune was lounging on the end of the couch, and she waved abortively at the girl. "Name's Konno Mitsune," she said. "But seein' as you're practically family, you can call me Kitsune."

On the next couch, arranged perpendicular on Setsuna's right, Naru smiled at her. "Hello, I'm Narusegawa Naru. It seems I sort of got stuck with the managerial duties while our landlord is away, so come see me if you have any questions."

Next to her sat the woman Natsume had identified as the Yochi no Kouken. She was holding a watermelon in her lap, occasionally thumping its surface to judge its ripeness. "I'm Otohime Mutsumi," she said. "As soon as I figure out if this watermelon is good, we can all have a piece of it." And then she proceeded to go back to thumping the watermelon.

"Sometimes, I wonder if it's contagious..." the man on the end said, then turned to Setsuna and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees as he looked at her. "So, Motoko's little sister, eh? Name's Seno, and I guess that'd make me your brother-in-law."

Setsuna's eyes widened to the approximate size of dinner plates, and she looked up at Motoko for confirmation. The older girl smiled and slipped her wedding band off her finger, then held it out to Setsuna, who took it delicately and turned it between her fingers, reading Seno's name and the date of their wedding engraved along the inner band.

After a moment, she returned the ring to Motoko, then bowed toward the collective group. "It's nice to meet you, everyone," she said. "I hope you didn't misunderstand that I want to move here. Though it does seem a very relaxing place, I simply am unable to right now."

"Well you're welcome here anytime, just the same," Kitsune offered. "Any family o' Motoko's is family of ours, ya know?"

Sabashii suddenly stepped out from the kitchen, cracking the knuckles of his bare, gloveless hands as his attention focused toward the front entrance. "I sense that we have company," he said. "Familiar company."

The crew knew what that meant.

In less than five seconds of a frenzied flurry of activity, the group had arranged themselves like a phalanx from ancient warfare: Sabashii, Seno, Motoko, and Naru in the first row. Sabashii stood idly by, but his tense energy belied his combat readiness. To Sabashii's right, Seno stood in a low, traditional crouch, his left hand clutching the sheath of his sword, his right loosely wrapped around the hilt.

Sparing a glance to the assassin, the swordsman asked, "Wearing your pavement-crusher today?"

Sabashii chuckled. "They don't want daddy to take his belt off."

Next to Seno, Motoko stood with her weight balanced evenly on both feet, holding the Youto Hina down and toward the ground behind her. Her ki signature was rising as she prepared an ability to be used as an opening strike.

Naru's wings had unfolded from her back with barely a grimace on the Tokyo University student's part, eliciting a short gasp of surprise from Setsuna, and a katana-length blade of pure white energy had formed in her right hand, which she now held in a double-handed grip on her right side.

Behind the front line, Kitsune stood between Seno and Motoko, holding her daggers in the same pose she'd adopted before fighting the speed nun yesterday: crossed with the right blade held in front of her left shoulder, left blade held behind her right elbow.

Kaolla stood on Kitsune's right, her missile packs securely strapped to her forearms and shins, with her reloaded one-shot plasma cannon slung over her back on a strap. She was grinning ear-to-ear, and bouncing from foot to foot in anticipation of another battle.

"Princess, please calm yourself," Nealla said from Kaolla's right. Though she held no weapons, and seemed rather unconcerned, magical energy swirled about her like winds swirling around a hurricane

Shinobu stood to Kitsune's left, letting the weight of the stir-fry skillet she'd used against Mei rest against the ground as she held her left hand up near her face, preparing to cast another Hastega the way she had the previous day.

To her left, Mutsumi stood calmly as ever, her metal quarterstaff extended to its full length and standing on its end as she gazed out toward the front landing, swaying lightly back and forth on her feet and humming an idle tune.

Haruka stepped out of the kitchen, dragging the freshly-released Lorenzo behind her. She shoved the man's M14 into his hand, then took up a position beside the dinner table, ready to dive behind it for cover if necessary.

For his part, Lorenzo swiftly crossed the room to take cover behind the couch that Kitsune had been seated upon, checking his weapon as he did so, then flicking off the safety and letting it rest on the back of the couch, aimed toward the entrance.

"So what are we betting on their strength estimate?" Seno asked.

"I say they bring at least thirty," Kitsune replied.

Motoko shook her head. "In such a confined environment, more numbers is a liability," she argued. "I believe they will bring the same number or less, but bring more experienced, more powerful mages."

"I think I'm taking Motoko's side on this one," Naru said.

"Well, no time like the present to find out," Sabashii input as Gandolfini appeared at the top of the stairs.

Catching sight of the welcoming party that was prepared for them, Gandolfini and the Mahora party drew to a stop once clear of the stairs, allowing the Hinata tenants to get a good look at their numbers. Along with the other eight survivors of the 'Mahora Ten,' there were two junior high school girls, if their identical uniforms to Setsuna's were any indication, and a kid in a business suit. Interestingly enough, the boy had an oaken staff wrapped in white cloth over his back.

Sabashii narrowed his eyes at the boy. _That staff... Could it possibly be...?_

Gandolfini raised his hands just slightly. "You may put away your weapons, Hinata tenants," he said. "We have not come here for battle. We have come here for discussion."

"What have we to discuss with you?" Haruka called out, taking on her role as the mediator.

"Mahora's decision concerning your group," Gandolfini answered calmly.

"I don't see any deception in their auras," Shinobu said, her voice strained as she used her newfound ability to try and sense their intent. Her voice wavered slightly. "But...I could be wrong."

"Seno?" Haruka asked.

Wordlessly, the swordsman slid his blade out a fraction of an inch, but there were no cracks upon its surface. "They're clean," he said. Then he shrugged. "Or they're hella good liars."

Haruka nodded, then called out to the Mahorans, "Well, that being the case, why don't you all come inside and we'll discuss this over tea?"

With a polite nod, Gandolfini and the others complied. As they entered the foyer and everyone within became visible to the group from Mahora, one of the school girls, with long brown hair laid straight down her back, suddenly broke out of the group and ran straight for Setsuna, calling out "Secchan!" as she did.

To the general surprise of everyone involved, the girl showed no signs of stopping or even slowing down as she neared Setsuna. Extending her left arm, the girl caught Setsuna around the neck with a flying tackle that bore them both to the ground.

"Holy shit," Seno said, flicking a glance over to Motoko. "Your sister just got clotheslined."

"So she did," the swordswoman replied, holding a hand over her mouth in a futile attempt to hide her own smirk.

On the ground, the girl took the opportunity, while Setsuna was still stunned, to seat herself in a straddle on the taller girl's stomach. This produced another round of surprised, confused, and embarrassed expressions from all observing. The girl then proceeded to poke Setsuna's face until the stunned swordswoman focused her eyes on the girl's face. Upon noticing their position, Setsuna's face lit up like a stop light.

"Ojou-sama, would you please get off of me?" she asked, her voice as quiet and frail as a dead leaf in autumn.

"No!" the girl replied, leaning down until their faces were inches apart. "You're going to lie there and listen to me. You had me so worried, taking off like that without a word..."

As the girl bickered at Setsuna, Seno's eyebrows furrowed at the same time he felt warmth emanating from the sword in his hand. He drew the weapon just enough to reveal the _habaki_ and a millimeter of the blade itself, and raised an eyebrow at the strong, distinct glow coming from the sword.

Leaning to the right, he nudged Motoko with his elbow to get her attention, then turned his body to the right to show her the condition of his weapon. Upon seeing it, Motoko smiled a knowing smile, then forcibly wiped it off of her face and said amusedly, "That's interesting."

Leaning forward from behind onto the swordsman's left shoulder, Kitsune eyed the weapon's glow, then pronounced, "That's _very_ interesting."

Seno shooed the fox off his shoulder, then fully sheathed his blade, marched over to the two girls, and proceeded to hook the shorter girl under her arms and haul her up bodily off of Setsuna. "As amusing as it was to watch that," he told her, "we don't need _yet another_ reason for us to deserve our current TV-MA rating."

"What?" the girl asked as Seno set her down.

"You're better off not knowing," Haruka answered, then glared at the swordsman. "You done bashing the fourth wall yet?"

"Until the next good excuse."

Pulling herself to her feet, Setsuna carefully straightened up her hair and clothing, then bowed in Seno's direction. "Thank you, Seno-dono."

His right eye twitched. "Don't do that."

She blinked, looking at the Hinata tenants as if they would have an explanation for his sudden near-hostility. "Do what, Seno-dono?"

"_That_!" he exclaimed, pointing a finger at her as if it would answer all her questions. "The formality crap. I can't stand it. Lived in America for four years, where respect is all of nil. Sad to say I got used to it." He shrugged.

A devious smile worked its way across Setsuna's features. "Sorry," she told him. "I won't let it happen again." She paused for a moment, and then very deliberately added, "Seno-dono."

Glaring lasers at the youngest of the Aoyama sisters, the swordsman turned and kicked the back of the couch, muttering under his breath, "Dammit, if you weren't my sister-in-law, I'd kick your ass from here to next Tuesday..."

"You kids finished yet?" Haruka asked testily, blinking slowly at the two. She nodded her head toward the Mahorans, who had since arranged themselves in the general seating area in the living room. "We have business to attend to, after all." She fixed her gaze on Gandolfini. "What 'decision' has Mahora come to concerning us?"

At some unspoken signal from the Tea Shop proprietor, the Hinata crew discreetly spread out into a loose encirclement formation around the Mahorans. If there _was_ to be another battle, and a few of the tenants believed there would, then the home team was determined to start it off with the upper hand.

If Gandolfini took notice of the none-too-subtle shift in the room's tactical layout, he did nothing to betray that knowledge. Maintaining a cool demeanor, he gestured toward Natsume and said, "Young Natsume is convinced that the lot of you are the Chosen Heroes of legend. After the school headmaster consulted with a trusted confidant, we have agreed to operate under the assumption that, ostensibly at least, that descriptor can be applied to your group."

"And that tells me exactly what?" Haruka pressed.

As she continued to interrogate the Mahorans, Mutsumi looked out the open window she had placed herself near, staring up into the cloudless sky. _I sense your hand in this matter,_ she thought.

_Do you?_ a cultured, male voice echoed into her mind. _How can you be certain our friend without the thump-thump isn't responsible?_

A wry smile crossed Mutsumi's lips. _These people wouldn't have any reason to have any sort of prolonged contact with the captain,_ she thought. _You, on the other hand, have a well-known penchant for your fascination with and dabbling in the affairs of unique magic-rich areas such as Mahora_.

The voice chuckled. _This is true. I admit, I have given my council to Headmaster Konoe on occasion. A decent fellow, the old man. Reminds me of Confucius. In any case, you can't say that my intervention wasn't helpful, this time. I _did _get the Mahorans off you and your Heroes' collective backside._ There was a pause. _You might try paying attention, Mutsumi. Your friends are talking to you._

Blinking once, then shaking her head, the Okinawan woman spun around to find all eyes in the room turned to her. She found herself at a loss as to the topic of conversation, until Tama flew over to her shoulder and began to "Myuh" at her.

Mutsumi nodded her head at the turtle's 'explanation,' then turned her attention to the group. "It was never specifically stated in the legends what the supposed adversary or adversaries of the Heroes would be, but the threat posed by Namusan Sapou, especially if he still pursues his war against God, would definitely qualify."

The girl that had pounced Setsuna earlier blinked rapidly at Mutsumi. "Did that turtle just tell her what we were talking about?" she asked.

"You get used to it," Kitsune answered. "We don't really get it ourselves."

"Wait, rewind that a second," the red-haired schoolgirl, Asuna, said. "Why does this guy and this war of his count as this kind of epic adversary?"

"Because Namusan Sapou would attempt to turn humanity to his side, and use the entire world as a battleground from which to wage his war against God," Nealla explained calmly.

"War against God?" Setsuna asked.

Mutsumi looked around at the gathered group, then took a deep breath.

Before she could say anything, however, Seno cut in, "My inner RPG player is telling me that it's backstory and plot revelation time."

The anemic smiled. "Right you are, Seno. So I suggest everyone settle in and get some refreshments. This could take a while."

"I'll go make some tea," Shinobu volunteered, heading for the kitchen.

"Let me help you," the girl who had tackled Setsuna said, following the white mage. "My name's Konoe Konoka."

"Maehara Shinobu. It's nice to meet you, Konoka..." The girls' conversation trailed off as they entered the kitchen.

"I'm goin' up to the room to get some sodas out of my stash," Seno told Motoko as he headed up the stairs. "Want something, hon?"

The swordswoman shook her head, then sat down on the couch beside Setsuna and closed her eyes. "No, thank you."

Across from her, Kuzunoha regarded her steadily. "You have grown into a fine young woman, Motoko-sama," she said, "and a powerful swordswoman beside the fact. Your entire demeanor exudes calmness and wisdom. You have indeed come a long way from the frightened, lonely child you were when you left Kyoto."

Motoko smiled warmly at the Shinmei instructor. "Thank you for your kind words, Kuzunoha." She leaned over and threw an arm around Setsuna, who blinked at the unusual amount of affection that the older swordswoman was showing. "So, you will have to tell me sometime about all the adventures you have been having at Mahora Academy, little sister."

"There really hasn't been anything exciting, aneue," Setsuna said. "As you probably know, it's part of my assigned duties to ensure that any demons who manage to infiltrate past Mahora Academy's magical defenses are quickly and efficiently dispatched, on top of my duties to protect Ojou-sama at all costs. Other than that, it isn't anything special."

Motoko's smile shifted into a smirk. "That's not what aneue told _me_," she replied. "I specifically recall mention of a certain field trip to Kyoto..."

The younger girl reddened. "There were a few confrontations with a radical faction of the Kansai Magic Association..."

"Oh, were there? I was told more about your little trip to the cinema village."

Setsuna's entire body tensed up until it was painful as she lowered her head until her eyes were shadowed. Her face was now hot enough to cook eggs on. "That wasn't... I didn't... It..."

"You know, the way you get off on teasing her like that, you're becoming more and more like Tsuruko every day," Seno commented, his intervention once again sparing Setsuna from further embarrassment. The swordsman was leaning against the banister, an open can of Barq's root beer in his right hand and another in his left.

"Thank you again, Seno-dono," Setsuna said, placing her hand over her heart. Ostensibly, this was to placate the rapidly-beating organ, but in reality, she was feeling through her uniform jacket the photograph of herself and Konoka that she kept in a pocket near her heart at all times.

At that exact moment, Konoka and Shinobu returned from the kitchen, each carrying a large tray of tea and cups, in time to catch the comment about the cinema village. "Oh, are you talking about when we went to the cinema village in Kyoto?" Konoka asked, then giggled. "I got to dress up as a princess and Secchan was my samurai bodyguard."

Motoko, Seno, and Kitsune exchanged meaningful glances. These glances did not go unnoticed by Sabashii, Haruka, or Naru. By an unspoken agreement and the obvious fact that it would be discussed later, no one said anything.

"Someone took our picture and sent us copies, too!" Konoka continued, reaching into her shirt to pull out a gold, rectangular locket which she removed, opened, and passed around. "It was a lot of fun. I want to go back someday."

"I remember this," Negi said fondly, smiling as he looked at the picture before passing it on to Naru. "This was right before the fight against Tsukoyomi, wasn't it?"

Motoko raised an eyebrow at the boy teacher. "Tsukoyomi, you say? Little blonde girl with glasses? Fights with two _kodachi_?"

"On the money," Asuna said with obvious surprise.

"Still introducing herself as a member of Shinmeiryu, no doubt," Motoko scoffed.

"She's not?" Negi asked, blinking.

"Tsukoyomi was expelled from Shinmeiryu just about a year ago," Kuzunoha explained. "By selling her services as a common thug, she was giving the Shinmeiryu a poor image as brutish hired muscle."

"And so she was expelled from Shinmeiryu," Motoko said, scowling. "She knew it was inevitable. The child was far too bloodthirsty."

"You guys know her?" Asuna asked.

Setsuna smiled faintly. "Don't you remember, Asuna-san? Aneue knows of Tsukoyomi and the Shinmeiryu, because aneue is the _heiress_ to Shinmeiryu."

Silence befell the room to match the paled, awestruck expressions on the faces of Negi, Konoka, and Asuna. "So, you're in charge of the swordsmanship school where Setsuna-san trained?" Negi asked, a bit nervously. He knew full well what Setsuna was capable of, and therefore to be the heir of that swordsmanship style, Motoko's skill had to be a fearsome sight indeed.

"I will be one day, when I feel I am ready," the swordswoman answered with a nod. "But that is a tale for another time." She gestured toward Mutsumi with her right hand. "I do believe it is Mutsumi's turn to tell us a story."

Mutsumi smiled warmly at her friend, then wasted no time in launching directly into her story. "In the beginning, there was darkness. And from this darkness, God summoned His power, and from the primordial darkness, He created the primordial light, then divided light and darkness. God then looked upon what He had wrought, and saw that it was good. On the second day, God created the Earth and the heavens, and all the planets therein. God then looked upon what He had wrought, and saw that it was good. On the third day-"

Simultaneously, in the same tone of voice and utilizing the same bastardized English accent, Seno and Sabashii chimed in, "Skip a bit, Brother."

Blinking, Mutsumi looked between the two and said, "Ara?"

Seno chuckled. "Sorry, Monty Python reference. Continue."

Laughing quietly, Mutsumi nodded, and took a moment to look between the gathered groups. Then, she continued, "Contrary to what is recorded in theological texts around the world, humans were not the first sentient creatures that God created. Many hundreds of thousands of years before He created us, the first sentient beings that God put upon the Earth were the djinn, as sort of a test to see if the world He had created was capable of supporting intelligent life. The djinn, being the closest creatures to God outside the realm of heaven, were gifted with the same mana-type magic that God had used to create the world. Over the years, the djinn grew and prospered, and as a reward for their good deeds, God created a paradise for them, the entrance of which is hidden high on a forbidding mountain somewhere in the world, and bade them enter their paradise to live the rest of eternity in utter prosperity."

Mutsumi cleared her throat, unused to speaking for such a prolonged period of time, then accepted a cup of tea from Shinobu with a grateful nod. She paused to take a sip of tea and collect her thoughts, then continued. "As the djinn that had inhabited the world moved to their new paradise, God filled the world they had left behind with human beings. He commanded them to be fruitful and multiply, and perform good deeds in His name, and for a time, all was good.

"However, there was one djinn who did not agree with God's designs, and felt that the move to the djinn paradise was banishment from the Earth they had worked so hard to make livable. This djinn's name was Namusan Sapou."

An almost-palpable level of nervous tension filled the room at this point, assisted by the low and sinister manner in which Mutsumi was speaking. "Namusan gathered a large army of like-minded djinn and began a rebellion against God. At first, this rebellion was contained to Earth and the djinn paradise, fighting at once the djinn who did not agree with Namusan, and the humans, who Namusan and his followers viewed as worthless creatures who had stolen and defiled their home on Earth. With the inability of both humans and djinn to ascend to Heaven, there was little Namusan and his followers could do but slaughter God's other creations in the mortal realm.

"One day, as a raiding party returned from destroying a human village, the face of the war changed. You see, Namusan's soldiers had brought back a prisoner, and the rebel Marid could tell right away that this woman was neither human nor djinn. In time, he realized the woman was an angel, one of God's favored creations, and possessed of the ability to move between Earth and the Heavens at will." Mutsumi paused again, and watched several expressions flick in Naru's direction. "Without a second thought, Namusan raped the angel on the spot, treating her as little more than breeding stock to produce a new type of soldier for his armies, a djinn-angel half-breed."

At this pause, Naru shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Curiously, several of the Mahorans, and Motoko, were watching Setsuna closely, as the young Shinmei practicioner trembled as well, but in anger, insofar as Mutsumi's empathic abilities indicated.

"This activity did not go unnoticed in the higher realms. Enraged by Namusan's actions, God gathered His armies and sent them to the Earth below to crush this rebel movement. To lead them, God appointed the archangel Gabriel as the first of the Arbiters, zealous holy warriors 'each created and consumed in times of extraordinary crisis' that were known as the Blades of God."

Seno and Lorenzo both shook their heads silently.

"Unfortunately, Namusan had been planning from the beginning for the day when God would come down from the heavens to face him directly, and rather than slaughtering the humans as the angels had been led to believe, Namusan had in fact spent all the years in his campaigns conquering and subverting humanity. When the angels descended to face Namusan and his djinn, they were also forced to battle the very humans they had been originally created to watch over. And then, as if things could not get any worse, it was learned very quickly that Namusan had somehow discovered the secret of immortality. No weapon or magic possessed by the Heavenly Armies could slay him, no injury was considered anything more than a minor nuisance."

"That explains how he got up so fast after you, Seno, and Motoko took him down back there on Pararakelse Island," Kitsune drawled. "Bein' immortal, it's a wonder we managed to beat him at all."

Mutsumi nodded solemnly. "Because of this, the war raged on for hundreds, some accounts even say thousands, of years. In a last-ditch effort, the Heavenly Armies lured Namusan and his forces to the continent of what is now MolMol. As the two opposing armies slaughtered one another all across the continent, decimating its ecosystem and reducing its size to the small island nation that MolMol is today, Gabriel managed to draw Namusan to what is now the Desert of Death on Pararakelse Island. Assisted by the last remaining strength the original angel possessed after so many years of endless rape and forced childbirth, Gabriel gave his life in order to seal Namusan beneath the desert sands until Judgment Day, at which time his immortality would not save him, and God would cast him into the lake of fire."

Her story completed, Mutsumi leaned back in her seat and lifted her cup, quietly sipping tea from it. Some of the Mahorans, particularly Gandolfini and Kataragi, seemed familiar already with the Legend of the Heaven-Slayer. Everyone else was more or less wide-eyed and awestruck. Truly, the Namusan of legend was not a fellow to be trifled with.

Sabashii, however, did not seem to have learned anything new, nor exhibit any unease at the man's capabilities. His expression was hard as he said, "The first step to defeating one's enemy is to know his weakness. His immorality had to come from somewhere, which means we need to find that out. I vote we go to Mahora Academy. They have a library there, built on an island. This library houses the largest collection of knowledge, both magical and mundane, in the mortal world. If nothing else, it'd be a good place to start."

* * *

**A/N:** Also, for those of you interested in this sort of thing, there is now a bonafide, easy-to-reach place on the intarweb where you can regularly contact the stars of _Kuro Arashi_. We've got ourselves set up in a little forum by the title of Gamer's Sanctuary. If you want to find it, you can easily do so by clicking the homepage link on my writer profile here. 


	17. Mists of Morning

_"A lot of things were falling into place around that time, and it had nothing to do with the upcoming Mahora Festival. In retrospective, it's all very clear to me that that period of time was a turning point in life as we knew it__."  
- _Negi Springfield; 'On a Wing and a Storm'

**Chapter XVI:  
Mists of Morning**

_May 6, 2007  
__Mahora Academy, Japan  
__0601 hours, local time_

It was an oddity on Japanese streets. A Land Rover Defender 130, a rugged all terrain utility vehicle, favored by the British Military for its dependability, being driven by one lone man. Soft sounds of western music filled the cabin as the vehicle made its way through the city. The destination was the Tatsumiya Shrine, a shrine inside the campus, and a regular place where the American-taught Japanese gunslingers frequented.

Lorenzo drove his vehicle into the city-campus, showing proof of identity, meaning his US Passport, his US Department of Defense card indicating his rank, Gunnery Sergeant, 7th Fleet Intelligence, and his papers granting visit, to a curious cop who pulled him over. Nodding, he was directed to the shrine when asked, and parked in an accessible space.

"So..." He said, thinking out loud again. He merely pulled the slides on a pair of Beretta 93Rs. Heavily modified, they looked like the guns used in the movie _Equilibrium_, and loaded with low-power chalk rounds which contained a nasty electrical spell in each round, it was enough to knock someone cold. His backups were in the car, and with a grunt, got out of the car and stretched. He would walk up to the shrine, and pay his respects to his friend. Ever alert, he still didn't really trust these Mahora guys, and still wasn't fully trusted by the _Kuro_ people either. He had gone through the rituals and other things, when he was approached by one of the shrine priestesses.

"Unclean people are not allowed in _haiden_," she said. She was a dark skinned girl, just an inch shorter than he was, with a cool, stoic expression. Her hair reached down her back, with a pair of forelocks held in place with ribbons.

"What do you mean?" he asked. He wore a Western business suit, with a large yet somewhat thin enough trenchcoat normally worn in late spring and early fall.

"Berettas. Give them to me or you leave, gunslinger," she said, her right hand reaching forward.

Dumbstruck, he looked down. Sure enough, the extended and overly modified body of the Beretta 93R, the three round burst model of the 92 series, was sticking out from his trenchcoat.

"Shit," he said, as he removed the customized Berettas, each measuring 300mm, or about 11 inches. It was much easier to control in three round burst, especially with the high-capacity 25 round magazine which extended way past the grip.

"Interesting weapons, gunslinger. Next time you enter my temple, leave them with the M14 in your car." She said, taking both weapons after he finished emptying them, as well as his spare ammunition. She took a look at the guns, and scoffed. "Arlington Magic Society. A society renowned for its militaristic training. Comparable and if not, better than the Sandhurst School of Modern Magic. You are the second such mage to enter my temple. Enjoy your visit, Department 13 Agent, you shall pick these up when you are done."

Dumbstruck, he shook his head, and repeated his cleansing and absolution for sins. Deep in prayer, he muttered the few Shinto and Buddhist prayers he knew before switching to the few Latin prayers he was taught from birth.

The dark skinned priestess kept watch over him, and assured he would not cause trouble, still kept watch, his guns and ammunition placed in a box that once held another mage's weapons from six years ago.

--

_Starbooks Coffee; Across Campus_

Approaching from out of the fog with a low rumble, a red-and-black Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R pulled into the parking lot of the local Starbooks, and into one of the parking spaces near the front of the business, leaving enough room for another motorcycle to pull into the same space.

After shutting down the vehicle, the rider, clad in riding clothing of a color matching the motorcycle, reached up and doffed the red helmet with the opaque faceplate, revealing none other than Seno to be the vehicle's driver.

Placing the helmet on the chasis of the vehicle before him, Seno leaned back in his seat and stretched his arms up above his head, then cracked the knuckles of his gloved hands. "Well, this is where we're all supposed to meet up, but it doesn't look like anyone else is here yet."

A short distance away, Motoko stared at the red stop light as if issuing a challenge through the shaded visor of her blue helmet. It hindered her progress to the Starbooks that was sitting right before her, and it absolutely refused to change green. Impatiently, she revved the engine once on her customized blue-and-black ZX-6R Kawasaki Ninja to make her protest and reluctantly the stop light finally switched its colors. Giving it a nod, she immediately kicked off and within fifty yards from her starting destination she turned into the parking lot.

Slowing down to a crawl her eyes immediately locked onto Seno and she felt a smile tug on the corner of her mouth. Motoko pulled up beside him and turned the engine off before taking her helmet off. The ride had left her hair wind blown and had she cared to run her fingers through it, they wouldn't have made it very far; it was full of tangles. She held her helmet in her lap and looked over at her husband. "The others have yet to arrive, I take it." She smirked. "Good morning," she added.

"Yeah, we're first here, it seems."

Pocketing the key to his motorcycle, the swordsman swung his left leg over and stepped off on the right side, kicking down the kickstand and checking to ensure that his sword was securely locked in its sideboard holder.

He yawned. "It's too damn early for this. I need something non-coffee with a high caffeine content."

Motoko swung her leg over the seat to get off after securing her vehicle and turned to face him. Her dress attire was casual yet conservative, consisting of standard blue jeans, a white blouse covered by a blue riding jacket, and thongs on her feet. "How long have I kept you waiting?"

Yawning again, he shook his head once as if to clear it, then stepped around the back of his motorcycle to lean in and give Motoko a kiss on the cheek. Then he grinned irritatingly at her. "What happened to 'I'm going to be right along with you the whole way'?"

She couldn't help the giggle that came out of her mouth, or the familiar fluttering of her heart when she was near him. Instead of returning the kiss, she slipped her fingers into his hair and gently played with it, "I had other things I had to do; if I-" she stopped before she started the analogy, deciding that it wasn't a very good one for her husband considering that it had something to deal with the shower rooms.

He inclined his head just so forward and to his left, his eyes closing despite his best efforts; a sure sign that his biggest weakness had been successfully taken advantage of. "Sometimes I wish I'd never told you about that weakness."

Also pocketing her keys, she tore her gaze away from Seno and looked up at the Starbooks building. "Shall we go in while waiting? You could get your caffeine in the coffee house section." She give his hair a playful and light tug before pulling her hand away.

The next two arrivals had gotten there the hard way. But sure enough, Nealla and Kaolla were making their way down the street, headed toward the Starbooks. The two could have been twins, except for the style of their hair. Kaolla's was in it's usual style, and Nealla's hung loose around her shoulders.

The younger of the girls was chattering away incessantly to the elder, the girl with the straighter hair merely nodding, her arms stretched behind her head, moving as though she didn't have a care in the world.

"I know, Kaolla. But I keep telling you I don't have as much of a mind for machines as you do. Do you really need my help?" she asked, shaking shook her head.

"But Ne-ah-laaa! I can't do it without you. I have to have a test pilot!" Kaolla's eyes sparkled as she bounced around the other girl, waving her arms. "Please?"

Sighing, the woman's head slumped forward for a moment, before her brow arched, and she glanced over at the other girl.

"Fine fine. I'll do it. But only because you asked me to, Princess," spoken in that solemn tone as usual, before she allowed arms to lower, arms folding across her waist. Kaolla was in her usual school uniform, but Nealla had traded her usual for a pair of jeans, and a multi-colored t-shirt that hung loose around her upper body.

Kaolla made a face at her identical counterpart. "Stop calling me that here!" she demanded with a stomp of her foot, before she fell into step beside the other girl. "Ne, ne. Nealla, are you always going to follow me around?"

Nealla paused, turning her head slightly, wondering what had brought on the sudden question. "I'm going to stay with you as long as I can, Kaolla." A brief nod, before she gave a shout out, looking up ahead. "Seno!"

After he had been released, he turned and looked in the direction he'd heard his name, to see Nealla and Kaolla coming up the road toward them. "Ah, the first arrivals. We might want to grab a table big enough for all of us." He reached up his left arm, hand held in his classic greeting with thumb and first two fingers out, last two fingers tucked in.

--

_Tatsumiya Shrine_

"I take it you are done," the preistess said, as Lorenzo recovered his weapons. To ensure they were in working order, he took one and stripped it down. The maiden surprised him though, by doing the same to the other.

"I didn't tamper with the weapons. Delicate pieces of machinery they are, not as rugged as your rifle." She said, as she matched him in the speed she had in reassembling, loading, and cocking his gun.

"Er...thanks." Lorenzo said as he retrieved his other pistol. She nodded and left, while he got back to his car. Turning the key, he spotted the dark-skinned priestess looking at him from afar, as he backed out of the spot and headed to the meeting place.

He arrived to find he just passed by Nealla and Kaolla. Still somewhat shamed, he parked his vehicle in an obscure spot. He could see them, gathering around a table. His orders were clear. Upon discovery, disengage. So far, he hasn't. With a sigh, he gingerly placed his weapon into a carrier, a cloth covered case that doubled as a pack for him, and wearing it like a backpack, he tidied his hair and closed his trenchcoat. He went overkill with his dress, wearing a pair of square-framed dark sunglasses and a grayish beret, he stepped into the Starbooks and headed for the others.

"I guess everyone came late," he said, remembering he was the first to the Mahora campus.

Sabashii drove his way around to the meeting place. Within his vital machine he carried a bevy of gorgeous ladies, comprised of Kitsune, Haruka, Shinobu, and Mutsumi. He had the little lolicon sat between Haruka and Kitsune in the back, with Mutsumi, to him the most important, up front. One kept the guardian of fate close you know. He had some easy listening on his radio for a change, sounded like some jazz, maybe. Almost reminded one of something you'd hear in a James Bond movie at first.

He drove his baby up to the meeting place, and parked it in a space with no one around him. The white haired man opened the door on his end, and walked around to the front of the red car, and predictably, flipped over the hood like he did when he just arrived. After that, now on the car's other side, he opened the door for the ladies, one by one, on each side, and closed the doors when they were out. When he wasn't being a pervert, he's actually somewhat of a gentleman.

"Huh. So this is it. You can feel it in the air. Pretty good stuff. I haven't had a feeling like this in a while... Since my training. You ladies go ahead. I think I want to scout around."

--

_Just beyond the city limits_

A hilltop, overlooking the city. Exposed to the day, a mound of pure shadow rustled, as though shifting in the light to get comfortable. But shadows existed on the ground, didn't they? Two-dimensional, unnoticed? That's apparently how the occupant of this particular mound liked it.

"Okay, so, Hctibelttil, you tell me that there's a good reason for me to be here, I come all the way out here, away from the nice and air-conditioned academy, park my perfectly toned ass on this ridge, and expose myself to this nasty sunlight to which you know I detest... for what purpose?" The voice was shifting at all times, curiosity, indignation, anger, laughter, all rolled up into one interesting tone that made for quite the speech no matter how few words were presented in it.

The occupant of the mound was a single male, apparently a young man, who was laying on his stomach and looking over the sheer drop of this particular high hilltop. Beside him, a pair of yellow eyes floated - saying things that only the young man could hear, for he conversed freely.

"Alright, imp, let's see what's what, then..." The mound dissipated, allowing the light to flow across the young man's form. He appeared in clean and pressed clothing of a blue and silver-white ensemble, neither entirely formal but not exactly casual. He wore a pair of heavy-looking black gloves that could almost be considered gauntlets, and black combat boots. His delicately spiked hair, not outrageous as though presented in the punk genre, but not so random as to be considered bedhead, glistened a healthy sandy-brown - he'd obviously just gotten out of the shower recently, the late-sleeper.

Even with his spoken dislike of the sun's light, he narrowed his eyes, drawing a blackness tightly to his form. "I'm looking, I'm loo..." His voice halted momentarily, and a smile played across his clean face... "Target acquired, it's been a long time, Seno." He stood, then, and adjusted the studded choker on his neck. "Thank you, Hctibelttil, you have earned your keep another day, at least. Be glad I'm not your previous owner..."

The young man took a few steps back, gathering the darkness beneath his feet, and took a running leap off of the hillside, sending himself much, much farther out than any normal person should be able to. At the apex of his jump, he did something inside of his jacket, and the mono-wing of a small, disposable glider unfolded from his back, and he began a lazy spiraling descent towards the Starbooks - a curious thing, even though he'd allow only Seno to feel his presence, common people couldn't even see the descending young man, it took a certain level of the "power" to even fix him with a glance. The knowledge of this fact seemed to lend to his overexuberant and entirely immature behavior in this action, a sane person would have walked or gotten a taxi, not thrown themselves partway into a city and choose to glide the rest of the way in.

That said, this man of shadows was in no way sane.

--

_Starbooks, Mahora Academy_

"I don't even have any kind of an idea what I want," the swordsman was busily complaining to his wife. "Don't they have anything _but_ coffee in here?"

He squinted across the coffee shop to the menu displayed behind the counter, and gave an abortive wave to Lorenzo as the gunslinger wandered in and approached the table that he and Motoko were sitting at. In actuality, it was more like three or four tables slid together to make sure there'd be enough room for everyone that was going to be there.

Meanwhile, the twins were already inside, with Kaolla begging Nealla to try a specific cup of coffee with a double shot, and Nealla backing away, waving her hands defensively.

"Oh no. I'm not drinking that. I'll keel over dead of sugar shock, or something." She tried to look assertive, and managed to succeed until Kaolla leaped on her shoulders, tipped her head back, and forced the frozen coffee into her friends mouth.

"HGAKGH!" she gave a muffled cry as Kaolla leapt back, laughing gleefully, shaking the cup in her hand.

"But Nealla, it's good! Besides, you need to relax more and I know you well enough to know you do that when hyper!"

The girl meanwhile was clawing at her throat in a comical fashion, as she swallowed and the bulge in her cheek went away, just long enough for her to drop to her knees and grab the sides of her head. "Owwwwwwwww," her cry was a mere whimper, as the onset of a brain freeze hit her.

"Oops. I forgot to mention that happened sometimes. Sorry Nealla." The sheepish look on Kaolla's face was almost as humorous as the usually serious young woman gripping her head while on the floor.

"Nnnnggggahhh," was all that she could muster in response.

And it just goes to show:

Getting a princess bodyguard out for the day? The cost of trainfare.

Getting her to dress like a normal person? An hour's time of bribery.

Watching her get brainfreeze? ... Priceless.

Lorenzo merely sat there, his 'bag' by his side as he sipped an overly creamed and sugar decaf coffee. He was never fond of coffee, preferring tea, but he found by adding like close to 10 packets of sugar and 5 packets of creamer helped. He chuckled too, at what happened to Nealla.

Motoko grinned and pointed over towards the counter with the iced and chilled items on display containing mostly salads. "They've got juice and energy drinks over there, but personally the java chip cappuccino tastes-" She stopped in mid-sentence as she turned around to witness Nealla's reaction. She put a hand over her mouth to stop a giggle. "It'll be interesting to see exactly what all that caffeine will do to her," she mused.

"I think I'll wait. I'm feeling a little more awake now." He yawned, undercutting his previous statement in the process, then waved over the rest of the group that had made it in, sans Naru. Following the moaning and groaning from the counter, and Motoko's comment in that direction, he caught sight of the brain-frosty Nealla.

"I think she has to worry more about mental frostbite than a caffeine high, hon."

And then his phone started to play that distinctive Final Fantasy fanfare. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the silver brain cancer device and flipped it open. "Raven Squadron Contracting. We're running a special this week on glass parking lots: Buy one, get one half off." He winked at Motoko. "This is Raven Five, how may our destructive tendencies serve your purposes today?"

"_Seno. I'm going to be exploring Mahora for a while on my own. If you need anything from me I'll get back as expediently as possible, but there are some things I need to do here. Most of them in skirts."_

Sabashii pauses for a moment to let that sink in..then he cackles, and resumes speaking into the phone.

"_Actually to be honest, I'm going to get some information on my own if possible, from the faculty of the academy, in disguise. I've changed my form into one that will fit in here better. I'll let you know when I get some information or anything important. Just do what you were doing."_

And the phone hangs up then..and the signal turns off..so anyone trying to call to his phone would get his voicemail.

"Uhhh...right, k." The swordsman looked at his wife as he flipped his phone shut and returned it to his pocket, then shrugged. "Face-buster said he's got his own stuff to do here. Guess we'll be seeing him later on."

The figure from the hilltop more or less appeared in the chair across from Seno directly. He was staring at the swordsman's face with an uplifted eyebrow. He cast no shadow upon any furnishing or floor, he made no noise upon his arrival - hell, it wasn't even sure if he opened the door to get in. He looked a tad older than Seno, but not by much if he was, his body arched dangerously as if about to spring. He opened his mouth... and cold tumbled from his lips as a frosty vapor in appearance... he looked as if he wished to speak!

"Respawn, lawl." O what words had he spoken so dark and meaningful as to... wait. What?

Slightly alarmed by the newcomer, Lorenzo didn't dare draw his pistols. He instead kept his calm. He'd been surprised enough for the morning anyways. He drank his cup of liquid milk and sugar, shaking his head at the sudden rush of overly creamed and sugared decaf. He sighed, and dug in his pockets for something, producing a small paperback novel and started to read, although he kept the other hand in his pocket, in easy reach for his gun. Shifting his legs a little, if anything went down, he can dodge out of the way, discard the novel and draw the other gun.

Motoko's back had been turned upon the stranger's arrival, but she had felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle up and knew well enough that something had just gone amiss. Her eyes narrowed as she slid uncounted money (but surely more than enough) across the counter for a java chip cappuccino that she had previously ordered. At the sound of his voice she twisted her body around with her hand subconsciously going to where the hilt of her katana should have been... only to be discomforted by its absence. Damn modern stores and their weapon policies!

Clenching her fist instead, she took in the man who had so suddenly appeared; however, having never been one for subtlety it came off as a blatant, thin-lipped, offensive stare down. By now her drink had completely been forgotten, and the employee behind the counter, with little confidence, tried to remind her of its existence as well as to inform her that she had given far too much money. "Um, Ma'am...?"

For several moments, Seno gave the fellow across from him the kind of look that he'd give to any idiot who had just walked in and seated himself across from him, without knowing that the swordsman had him covered with a blaster pistol.

And then he recognized the fool in the jacket, and came up out of his seat to grab said fool by said jacket and haul him halfway across the table as well. "You're supposed to be dead! The fuck are you doing here?"

The young man grinned, giving an exaggerated shrug.

"Sea turtles, mate."

Seno'd feel a light pressure on his offending hand's wrist, paralyzing the hand long enough for the loon to slip free - a second pinch would restore feeling to the appendage before Seno'd realized he lost it. He dropped back into his seat and put his arms behind his head, leaning back. "Being dead wasn't all that interesting, to be honest. I decided I didn't like it anymore." He reached back into his jacket, and produced a jug of sake, which he took a long pull from before replacing it - something of that size shouldn't even fit there.

"So, what's with the operation here? I heard a pop-freak swordslinger was in this crazy group, figured it might be you." He continued talking, without regard for the others in the area.

"Yeah, we came to do a little research on our current enemy at Library Island. Waiting on Boy Wonder and whoever he's going to bring along to show up."

The swordsman leaned back in his seat and waved Motoko over, not seeming to be disturbed by the impossibly-large object pulled from a too-small space. Hell, after all the bag-of-holding incidents he's seen so far...

"So I get a general idea of HOW you're here. Doesn't tell me why you'd be kicking around this joint."

His eye shifted over to the woman that Seno motioned to, and his eyebrow went up. "Hm? Oh, you know me. Or, you did, I'm still confused about my whole existence thing these days." He spoke as though the subject was upcoming weather. "Either way..." He pointed to the Mahoran Visitor badge on his jacket. "When I'm not on... assignment, I more or less live in Mahora, the view is niiiice."

Setsuna pushed open the door with ease, letting the scent of coffee wash over her. She breathed deeply, stepping inside. The usual murmur of voices rose from those within, accompanied by the clatter of cups on saucers. Setsuna's school shoes scuffed the ground as she made her way to the counter, keeping her eyes low. Wandering about by herself really was no fun...She slipped one hand idly into her pocket, fishing for coins, as the counter drew near. Not looking where she was going, she bumped into a tall, dark haired woman who was situated near the cashier. Flames rose in her cheeks as she stammered out an apology, too bashful to even glance up now.

Motoko's 'demon eye's' were torn from their target as another all too familiar body collided into her own. Automatically her left foot swung out to catch her balance as her body twisted around in reaction. Another reaction consisting of a few angry words formed in her mind and had already worked its way into her lips but she kept them still as she recognized the girl. The words were immediately lost and instead of a quick burst of anger she felt a warm glow of love that she shared with her little sister. "It's ok, Setsuna! It's me." She gave a laugh and reassuringly placed a hand on her sister's shoulder.

At Seno's outburst, she released a single sigh all the tension she had previously felt flowed out of her body. At least her husband knew him, if anything else. Glancing over at Seno, she gave Setsuna a warm smile before walking over to husband.

"And who's the dame, just pick her up?" If there hadn't been a table between them, there'd be a nudge-nudge to the ribs.

However, she was stopped dead in her tracks as the word 'dame' entered one ear and exited the other. Dame? Dame? DAME? Her knuckles cracked as both of her hands balled up into tight fists and slammed down onto the table between Seno and his 'friend'. Every lesson of self restraint she had attempted to learn seemed to crack and crumble and all she could think about was his-...

"You DARE to call ME something so low as a.. a.. a..." her voice trembled a bit as she tried to search for the word, but she was unable to bring herself to say it. She was experiencing a familiar sensation of tunnel vision; it had been a long time since the swords woman had felt such a surge of rage.

Nealla and Kaolla had watched the scene unfolding from in front of them with interest, Nealla's hand on Kaolla's shoulder all that stopped the younger woman from doing a flying kick on the ninjaman who had somehow managed to sneak in.

In fact, it wasn't really a hand on her shoulder so much as it was Nealla holding the back of her shirt while Kaolla pulled forward to get away.

"Ne, lemme go Nealla!" Kaolla turned her head, giving the woman puppydog eyes, which were returned with a roll of Nealla's eyes, before she shook her head.

"No, Kaolla. I've warned you before about doing your flying kick. He may not be as invincible as Keitaro. And may get upset." And for whatever reason, this seemed like a typical conversation between two women who looked, and even sounded, like twins.

With Nealla's words, Kaolla grumped, but obediently went to stand in line, before her grumpiness vanished, and she bounced around, preparing to order something sugar laden, and banana flavored.

Nealla sighed, before looking between Seno, and the new addition, and Motoko.

"You probably shouldn't call her a dame. It might have bad results." A sincere nod from the woman, before she stood from her seat, and moved to stand beside Kaolla, wanting to order her own drink before Kaolla drove the cashier insane.

Setsuna glanced up as Motoko spoke, relief and affection flooding over her face as she studied her sister. She didn't have much time for this however, or even to say anything. So, watching the others with slight confusion and bewilderment, she simply raised a brow. It was the only thing that seemed appropriate, short of joining in.

The swordsman grinned that trademark, insufferable grin at his buddy, then gestured with his left hand toward Motoko. "Old buddy, this is my _wife_, Motoko. Calling her a dame was stupid. She takes exception to those kinds of things."

He then leaned back in his seat. True, in a straight fight, his friend would hardly have any trouble beating Motoko, but that's the nature of the ninja vs. samurai beast. But this wasn't a straight fight, and that meant that Motoko was probably going to use her 9999 female bonus vs. smartassed guys.

The man's right arm twitched lightly, as if heading for his jacket - instinct is difficult to resist at times. He stops though, as Seno began to explain. "Yes, yes, I see..." The young man rubs his chin, as though going over a non-existent beard. He watched the girls from MolMol with some sense of apprehension, not sure what they were going to... wait... did he just say...?

His arm slips out from under his chin, and his head hits the table with a resounding thud. "WIFE?!" He looked back up at the swordsman with a countenance of pure shock. His eyes traveled from the face of his old friend to the angry woman beside him. "But you... what happened to...?" He was obviously flabbergasted, apparently the Seno he'd known would never have settled down.

In a moment's thought, and trying to fend off the impending mad-female attack that all his AGI-dodge bonuses wouldn't help him much in avoiding... his attitude changed completely. Sliding out of his seat, he bowed before Motoko, and slipped a hand out of his jacket with a bouquet of red roses and white daisies.

"These are in apology then, Mrs. Nakakami. Allow me to introduce myself, giving my name as part of my apology." He did not yet rise. "I am Enkou Haiken, formerly of the Enkou nobility, and guardian of the dark. A sample of my many titles." He straightened from the respectful bow, noting the others in the cafe with them, and then extended the flowers to Motoko. "Daisies, to represent purity, and roses to represent passion." His voice had lost that snide, nudging tone, replaced instead with reverence and a solemn ring. Seno would recognize this as Haiken just not wanting to get hit again.

Lorenzo sighed, and the sound of a gun being decocked and the safety being reactivated could be heard, both hands now held liquid sugar and book, as he continued to read. If any shit did go down, Seno would most likely be the receiver of it, from what he heard, or that new guy.

Motoko's eyes fell onto the flowers. The shock of the complete change of attitude somewhat restored a fraction of rationality in the sword woman's head. With that came a rather irritating feeling of confusion. The old Motoko more than likely would have been offended by this gesture, and would have spouted out some type of self-righteous nonsense of the 'insult of compromising of honor, integrity,' etc. etc., and pursue giving the low-life a worthy ass kicking. She took a deep breath and with much hesitation reached out to accept the offer of flowers although she had no idea what to do with such an impractical and useless gift; although had she received flowers from Seno her biased self would have found much more meaning from them. Making a small smile with a polite nod of approval she moved to stand closer to her husband and sat the daises and roses down on a table top to be forgotten.

Subconsciously she rested her left hand on the back of Seno's neck right below his hairline, and tilted her head to the side. "What business do you have here, Mr. Enkou?" she asked with a perplexed look.

Confident he'd escaped an ass-beating for the day, Haiken resumed his previous lazy sitting posture and yawned mightily. "Business... business. Well, I'm a scalper." Haiken reached into his jacket and pulled out a long cord - hanging from this cord were several lumps of gray substance with black silk threads tied about. Obviously, these were actual scalps. Haiken looked pleased with his joke.

"But before I get ahead of myself..." He twisted his wrist, and the whole thing disappeared in a small wisp of shadow. "A little birdy told me that my boy Seno'd be here today, so I swung by to catch up. Well, less like a birdy, and more of an imp. Useful little demons, mind you, make good messengers." He shrugged lightly. In the past few years, Haiken had definitely changed - he'd never shown any sort of special abilities beyond his incredible skills, and here he was sporting power and abilities like they were going out of style.

"So, what are you guys up to around these parts? I could find out myself, to be sure, but honestly, I am a bit lazy." This last sentence he spoke with a more serious edge, lacking the whimsical and bored tone he'd spoke with insofar. Lifting a black-gloved hand, he brushed his spiked bangs aside, watching Seno intently. Even so, the others in the room would be struck by the intense feeling that they were also under his cold-fire gaze if they had even the slightest bit of awareness.

The swordsman leaned back in his seat and yawned again. Perhaps he should try one of the varied caffeinated drinks that were on sale, at least to stop the gods-be-damned yawning. "As I said, we've all got ourselves a nice enemy of legend that we're figuring to do research on to know how better to fight."

From an adjacent table, Haruka asked, "You wouldn't happen to have heard anything about a man named Namusan Sapou, would you?"

Setsuna squirmed. Having remained completely silent and apparently uninterested for a while now, she was beginning to get restless. She tapped her foot, releasing a sigh. Reaching into her pocket, she fished around for a moment before grabbing her cell phone. She scrolled through her contacts till the cursor stopped on a familiar name. Asuna-san. Call.

A few moments later, Asuna's cheery hello rang down the line. Setsuna frowned.

"Where the hell are you guys?"

"Hey girl," Kitsune said, walking up behind Motoko and leaning over her shoulder, hands filled with shopping bags. "What's all the glaring about? Someone scratch your sword, or something?"

She looked up at Seno and Haiken. One seemed to be peirced by Motoko's eyes.

Haiken noted the difference in air pressure that signaled moving, and heard the slight rustle of clothing and scrape of shoe on floor. He turned his head as Seno spoke, and was about to turn to glance at Kitsune's arrival when Haruka posed her question.

The noble-born froze for a brief moment before rounding on Haruka, a fire lit somewhere behind his eyes. He whispered, something wholly new as he'd been loud and raucous to this point; "Namusan Sapou is no man. And how do you, human woman, know that name?" He took a clearer interest in Haruka, now, apparently Haiken did know something about this Namusan character.

Being that she wasn't allowed to smoke inside the building, Haruka settled for the alternative: a large double-shot. "We know of him because we, meaning some of us gathered here, fought and beat him once on Pararakelse Island. We think he will be an enemy again, so we're here to learn a little more about him."

Haiken leaned back in his chair, gaze thoughtful and seemingly unfocused. He twisted his wrist to the left slightly, with that motion a kunai slid out of his sleeve and into the palm of his hand. He began to spin it around one finger in a carefree manner, not bothering to speak insofar.

"He's a nuisance. If you fought him, he must either be projecting himself back onto the Overworld here, or found a way to escape. He's tried to encroach upon the Shadowplane for many, many years out of mind, only to be denied entrance by we seven Kaisho, or to put it simply, the Shadowed Kings. I don't like him in the least bit, and if he's crossed back over into the living Overworld, then I have several reasons to see to it he's returned or slain permanently." He gave a half-turn of his body, and the motion was a mite bit too quick to see as he turned the chair beneath him, leaning his chest against the back of it.

"Tell me everything that transpired, and leave not a detail out. If I feel you've successfully driven him off, I might deputize the lot of you in my proceedings." Well now, this was different. The slightly annoying man of darkness was actually a king, amongst other things it would seem. His tone was cold, his voice was steely, his words were of command and position. It was time to get down to brass tacks.

Saved by the bell, apparently. Surprised, Lorenzo pulled out a vibrating cell phone. The screen showed that the text was in German. Getting up, he excused himself and left the group momentarily.

"Jawohl?" He would say, as he headed out the door. For the next few minutes he spoke in somewhat strained German to his commander. As usual, he was asking for more situation updates.

Moving to seat herself across from and one seat away from Haiken, Naru took over the job of explaining and detailing the encounter and short battle with Namusan on Pararakelse Island. As she did so, the others who had been there put in their two cents concerning the battle, their impressions on the man, et al.

Meanwhile, when Setsuna heard Asuna answer the demand of their location over the phone, it was as if the Shinmei hanyou had heard it in stereo: "We're right here."

This was spoken both from the speaker of Setsuna's phone, and the doorway of the Starbooks. Asuna stood inside the doorway, grinning irritatingly, her right hand holding open the door as her left flipped shut her phone. The four figures of Negi, Konoka, Nodoka, and Yue were behind her.

Crossing the area, Asuna seated herself on the stool next to Setsuna and ordered a cappuchino. "Sorry it took so long. We had to drag Honya-chan out of bed."

Haiken looked over to Naru as she began to speak, and frowned lightly. There was something odd about her... He politely watched each person as they spoke and added their own experiences into the pot, and he got a feeling from each as he concentrated on them in turn. Yes... they were like him. Well, not exactly like him, but close enough. He wasn't so sure about the guy who smelled like nickel and copper in the corner spouting German, though, he didn't get a chance to speak with him directly.

"Alright then, I'm signing myself aboard your troupe here, and you can all consider yourself deputy Border Enforcers. Sorry I don't have badges for you all... but I get to carry the only one." The kunai, it would seem, was replaced with a chained necklace, at the end of which was an engraving of a closed eye against a black metal-and-stone material. He slipped it back around his neck.

Mutsumi smiled faintly over at Seno's friend. "Ara, joining up with us is not as simple as it might seem."

And then, Haiken would suddenly sense an invasive presence in his mind, tunneling his vision to a green-tinted, warped corridor that pulsed in time with the voice booming in his mind, "_Corpses shift and headstones pushed aside, a fate you must abide."_

Haiken lifted a brow, watching Mutsumi. "So, it's you..." Meanwhile, inside of the ninja's head... "_Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone. But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. I will ask, and _you_ will answer.."_

"Oh, we have company..." He turned to look. "Hiiii, Asunoka! Nodoyu!" He looked back to the Kuro group. "Honestly, there's so many of them these days, it's easier just to remember their names in pairs..." He gave Negi a cold, hard stare. "I see you brought the midget." It could be surmised that Haiken wasn't very fond of Negi. Over the course of his introductions, his glance fell upon Kitsune and he stopped speaking, the hitherto stream of words simply ending.

It took some time for the girls to get their drinks, before returning to the table. The appearance of more company got a slight twitch of the brow from Nealla, while Kaolla sat down, happily slurping the extremely strange mixture she'd managed to get.

Nealla, meanwhile, was sipping a mocha with a double shot, eyes focusing from the people who'd been talking, all over the place, to the new arrivals. Her eyes lit on the one that Haiken had called a midget, and her brows furrowed slightly.

Setsuna grinned, snapping her cellphone closed as Asuna approached. "About time..." she said slowly, giving the group an idle wave. But as her eyes fell upon her precious Ojou-Sama, her cheeks flamed and she averted her gaze. "Ojou-Sama..." she said politely, bowing.

--

_City Streets_

Wandering the streets, he passed through a few shops, before staring into one of the store windows. He was then face to face with the same priestess from earlier. Cocking his head to the side, he watched as she paid for her purchases and exited the store.

"Hello again," he said, matching pace with her. He eyed the bag she was carrying. Even if it was carefully hidden, he saw a box of ammunition in the bottom. She noticed this, and sped up.

"Hey! I was just saying hello!" Lorenzo said, matching pace. When he caught up to her though, she rounded about and shoved him.

"What do you need?" she asked, in a somewhat irritated tone.

"Nothing."

"Then why follow me?"

"I have no clue."

"Carry this then," she said, tossing the bag to a somewhat surprised Lorenzo.

"What? I'm going to be needed..." he started to say, before she reached into his pocket and removed a very small electronic chip. It looked like a part of a magazine. Lorenzo's mouth opened in surprise, as she pulled back her hair, showing an earpiece connected to something in her pocket.

"I was wondering what the CIA had to do with Mahora. What you and your group was doing. Yakanatama-sensei's death was also odd, I was unable to get more information and decided to bug one of you. You seemed easiest. I know a few things about you, Ruizu-san." She said, turning the power off on the device in her pocket.

"You can be my guardian for today. I can keep track of you and provide a free service to this school. I already lost track of the white haired guy in the red car earlier."

Lorenzo merely nodded and shrugged. Besides, he was following her around, and she did look kinda nice, pretty, dark skinned...

"I'm also way too young for you. I'm in middle school," she said, noticing him stare at her. Smiling at his shocked reaction, and they went to a few more stores, running her errands.

--

_Starbooks_

Haiken was still viewing Kitsune when he felt an inexoriable pull on his extrasensory perceptions. "Wait, this means..." He looked around, and then decided he knew where it was coming from "Ooooh. OWNED!" The ninja pumped his fist, grinning wildly. "Way to go, Mana-san."

--

_Mahora Main Campus  
__Ten minutes earlier_

Sabashii wandered idly into the Mahora area with a bland look on his face. A quick shift, and he slipped into the campus area without so much as a sound. He took the time to let his white hair down, before he rubbed his chin in thought. There was a lot to do around here, but he had to keep his priorities straight. He wasn't here to ogle the women for once; he was here to do some business. The man shrugged to himself as he walked through the Mahora campus grounds, his motions were quick and simple, and he had his portable MP3 player on, the current song the opening to Naruto Shippuden; Hero's Comeback.

His feet touched the ground finally, landing in what appeared to be a music room of some kind. He couldn't help a melancholy smile. As he stood straight, he walked towards a piano, and sat on the bench. The music room was dark right now; apparently nobody would be using it today. The music player was quickly turned off, and Sabashii's hands touched the piano keys. The white haired man, in his younger form, took a long breath..and he played. Slowly his fingers moved over the keys..it had been a while. He had chosen Moonlight Sonata. His eyes closed as he played..and memories passed him by. He really didn't care if he was discovered now. He had to be anyway, so it was fine with him.

A minute or two into Sabashii's rendition of the classical piece, the sound of a pair of clapping hands could be heard. For standing in the room's doorway, leaning against the doorframe, was a man in a white business suit and thin glasses with a salt-and-pepper beard and very light blond hair.

Sabashii chuckled softly, a little strange sounding in this younger body..and the youth that he was stopped playing, but he didn't turn around to face the new person either. He lowered his head, his eyes still closed.

"Takahata, the Death-Glasses. I can tell who you are by the aura around you alone. Of all the people to find me. But it's a moot point. It's just as planned. I wondered if I'd attract any attention with that. I also just wanted to play.."

He sighed then, and turned, looking somewhat vexed.

"The truth is, I needed to speak to someone in a position of authority. This is best suited to my needs. It would have been troublesome if some cute girl had come here. I'd have been distracted. Before you say anything, I'll be brief, and to the point. I'm here to speak with you primarily, as well as conduct a ritual of Holy Light. I could probably do the ritual with Primordial Light and have it be much easier..but I can't use that kind of Mana. Sadly, I'm not part angel. I can't use every color. But, given time..and the focus, I CAN return your dead companion's life. I dislike killing those on the side of justice, even if it's unavoidable."

Takahata took a last, slow drag of his cigarette, then crushed the burning butt betwen his fingers before tossing it into a trash can nearby.

"Holy light, eh? Mana specialists are rare in this day and age, of that element even moreso. It'll be a while until we find someone who fits the bill."

In the process of lighting another cigarette, Takahata paused and gave Sabashii a look from the corner of his eye. "So it seems that the headmaster wasn't mistaken in trusting Julias that you're not such a bad guy after all, Faizel Zu."

The youth-in-form went rigid for only a moment..then he smiled and shook his head, and resumed playing the same tune on the piano. He spoke as he played, paying attention to both the man and the music.

"Do you know how long it has been since I've been referred to by that name? Three centuries. I haven't been called by my real name for three hundred years. I had a feeling you might have known. You're knowledgeable, and your connection to _that_ man.."

Sabashii shrugged and stopped playing once more, looking down at the keys. A lot of memories had been stirred with that name..but he wouldn't let it show too long. It wasn't like him.

"You know it will take time. I've been using the Wicked Darkness so long, and I renounced my holy title, and sword. It will drain my reserves to nothing to bring back a life I obliterated using that dark power. Still, I'm willing to do it. Others are with me, though not at the academy. I'm sure Gandolfini will be so very thrilled.."

He chuckled then, rather pleased. He didn't dislike Gandolfini particularly, but one would get the idea that yanking his chain brought him joy.

Takahata smirked slightly. "I'm sure that, given the vast network of contacts possessed by yourself and Mahora itself, we can find a person or persons capable of assisting in this venture. It will indeed go a long way toward guaranteeing good relations between your group and the mage world."

"It isn't really about that. Relations are irrelevant at this point, Takahata. I'm concerned. Excessively so. Namusan has always wanted my help, being my Djinni blood, and to be perfectly honest there were times I wanted to give it to him. I had nothing more to lose, to be honest. But even though I siphoned part of his power to make my Tortoise Armlet..well, I found a way to cut the wire to him before he could exercise control over me. He's always been angry about that. He's arrogant enough to not hate me for it, seeing me as no threat, but it did annoy him by quite a few levels."

Sabashii shrugged, and crossed one of his legs over the other as he continued to play. The man's fingers danced over the keys with expertise. Obviously he had practiced in the past few centuries, though he was certainly no Beethoven.

"I am concerned there is more. Vandole does not get involved in trivial matters. Namusan awakening is not his province. The Djinn are the province of The One, so it makes me wonder. It means there is a dark spirit involved, and one that is so strong, that Vandole considers it a threat to his domain area of spiritual matters. I've felt around, and even with Mahora's security measures, I've been able to read some energy signatures. You need barriers that keep out mana-enhanced senses. I know it's tough with no expert in Mana..I'll help you. But I need to know. Why is the Reine De Glace here, and on top of it, why can I feel the presence of 'That Man'? Someone of his power here has to mean something big is happening."

Takahata smiled. "Those two? Well, he has been here for quite some time. I imagine his power level was sufficient for you to sense him only because the school festival is drawing near. That's the only time of year he's able to manifest, you see. And as for _her_? Well, that you can blame on Nagi."

"Ugh, Nagi. That man was incredibly powerful, but incredibly irresponsible. He had a gift, that's for sure. One of the most powerful magicians of his day. As I recalled, he was one of the few with the presence of mind to be able to call up mana. Rare, for someone not of the Lineage."

Sabashii shrugged, and rubbed his chin then, seemingly deep in thought about something..

"I'm concerned. I'll admit it. If Mahorafest is coming, it means I'll have to be scarce. I don't want to be chosen by any errant teams or something, but I have to have the ability to wander around the campus. I can change my form into that of a female, but I'm reluctant to do so. I may not have a choice. I need to do some investigating, because there's a lot more to this than meets the eye."

Sabashii touched his hands together, and murmured a phrase in what sounded like Arabic, before his body shifted, in a spray of white rose petals, into that of a teenage girl. 'She' sighed, and placed her head on the palm, looking supremely bored. It was frightening at how similar Sabashii's mannerisms were to Evangeline's, especially looking like that.

"I'll wander the school. _She_ will be able to most likely know who I am by reading me. She's older than me, so it's doubtful I can hide my aura from her. Beyond that, I'll just have myself introduced as a temporary student or something. I'll create records and a name, it's no big deal. I have to be here when it all starts. I've had some interesting dreams I can't go into just yet."

--

_Starbooks_

Seno yawned, again, and cursed. "Well, since everybody's here, we've got no real reason to stick around. I mean, come on. We already wasted nine... Wait, let me check." He reached into his pocket, pulling out his PSP and thumbing through a few screens, before returning the device to his pocket. "Wow, no, we've wasted _thirteen_ pages doing nothing."

Down a few seats, Mutsumi kept her airy smile on, but raised her eyebrow slightly at Haiken. "Oh, I see." She turned to face Shinobu, across from her. "Shinobu, dear, would you focus your aura vision on our new friend?"

"Umm, I'll do what I can," the domestic engineer replied timidly, turning to lock her eyes on the ninja. Her eyes dilated, turning the trademark violet color of her aura sight. "Black. His primary color is dark."

Haiken smirked. "You didn't need any Byakkugan to know that," he commented off-hand.

"Well, you've got a white aura surrounding it."

Mutsumi smiled. "Ah, so the decision is out of our hands," she said. "I did some checking, and for a specialized aura vision like Shinobu's, a Chosen Hero will have a white aura surrounding them. Shinobu, try looking at Setsuna. Does she have the white aura?"

The girl shifted her attention, and a moment later shook her head. "I see red. Her color is red."

Motoko nodded. "Red as an aura is usually an identifying color of demons, even half-demons." Anticipating her adopted sister's feeling of shame at having attention drawn to her heritage, the Shinmeiryu heiress reached over and ruffled the shorter girl's hair.

"But no white aura?" Mutsumi pressed.

"No, no white aura."

"That's handy," Seno commented. "It'll make picking out fellow Heroes easy." He glanced at the watch on his left wrist, then rotated his wrist to pop the joint before clenching a fist and jerking the arm toward his chest. Across the room, Motoko's left arm twitched involuntarily. "Like I said, though. We're wasting time. Let's do this shit."

Setsuna crossed the room, her bravado slightly restored, and flicked her brother-in-law on the forehead. "Don't swear, Seno-dono," she said. "There are kids around."

"I'm sure that little guy, Negi was his name? I'm sure he's heard worse."

Glancing over her shoulder, the half-demon leaned forward and said in a lower tone, "Please don't swear in front of Ojou-sama. It embarrasses me."

He opened his mouth to let out a snarky comment, then remembered the reaction his sword had had to the two of them and smiled, then patted her on the head. "Sure thing, kiddo. And if you flick me again, I'll break your hand."

The deadpan tone in which he spoke momentarily worried her, until Motoko wandered over and smacked him in the back of the head. "He's kidding. He's got the overprotective big brother complex, so he'd kill people just for looking at you funny. Ask Shinobu."

The mentioned girl nodded sagely.

The boy teacher cleared his throat. "If nothing else, Seno-san is correct," he said. "We are wasting time here that would be better spent in the library."

Mutsumi nodded. "Let us proceed, then."

"Let's mosey," echoed Seno, Haiken, Kitsune, and Nealla at the same time. Seno said it in his usual snarky, game-ripoff tone, Haiken and Kitsune stopped to stare at each other after the shared wavelength, and Nealla rolled her eyes as she mocked the predictable response from the swordsman.

--

_Tatsumiya Shrine_

The two dropped off the stuff they bought in the shrine, where Lorenzo met her parents. Nice people. After conversing with them, he was leaving the shrine when he felt something hit him in the back of his head. Falling forward, he rolled with the fall and ended up in a heap on the first landing. Before he could draw his gun, however, he only saw a boot before being knocked out.

Mana looked at the knocked out gunslinger, her parents nowhere to be seen. Grunting for a bit, she picked him up and put him over her shoulder, before jumping off to the woods surrounding the shrine.

_Forest, Exact Location Unknown_

Lorenzo came to, well, forcibly. He was soaking wet and propped against a tree.

"Wake up, Gunslinger," a voice said, before the sound of a bucket being plunked into a stream.

Opening his eyes, he merely saw a brown shape, which made him react. Reaching for both of his USPs, he found they were gone, and he was splashed again.

"I'm awake, goddamnit," he yelled. Getting up, he touched his head, and felt a large bruise. Shaking his head for a bit, he coughed and finally got some sense on his bearings.

"Where am I? And what the fuck?" he demanded, finally recognizing his captor. "You have some nerve little girl for taking me captive." Funny, he was taller than her by only an inch. Matched his height in fact with the boots she wore.

Mana coldly looked at Lorenzo, kicking his pistols towards him, as well as the spare magazines. "Chalk rounds, meant only as a marker, or as a really painful nonlethal weapon. Low-grade, about 4 volts, electricity spell, hardened so it can penetrate skin and deliver the painful shock into the victim, thus discouraging them from attacking. I had some doubts about it, but your design can be a handful," she analyzed, admiring one the chalk rounds she took from one of the magazines. "As for you being here. Unfinished contract. Initiated by Cal Devans. Mage of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, Department Thirteen."

"What does Cal have to do with this?"

"She promised me five thousand in US dollars if I were to defeat the next male gunslinger from the CIA to step on the grounds of the Tatsumiya shrine. I later found out the entire Department listed the Shrine as a no-go zone."

"What? No one told me about that!"

"Tough luck. Ready yourself, Ruizu-san."

"Wait, what?" He was going to say more, before a coin passed him in high speeds, burrowing into the tree trunk. Mana's hands smoked from launching the coin, and a stack of coins appeared in her hands.

"Hold on here.." Five more coins, this time splintering the bark is it were from a shotgun blast.

Without thinking, Lorenzo dove forward, and snatched the pistols and ammunition before darting into the trees.

"That's more like it, Ruizu-san," Mana said, walking into the woods after him.

--

Having abandoned his trenchcoat, which had caught in some bushes, he loaded both pistols. The click of the second mag didn't even finish echoing when he came under attack with 100-yen coins. He ducked to the side a bit, and saw her hiding behind a tree.

"Can we talk about this?" he questioned.

She responded by turning from the other side and letting loose a series of shots. Lorenzo's training led him to present the sides of his pistols in front of him, blocking the shots.

"I guess not." Looking at the pistols, they made little nicks in the USP's slide. "I'm charging you for the slide replacements on these things!" he yelled out, before making his attack.

As expected, she shot at him, dodging them, he deflected a few, some still had force to be lodged into trees. This continued, until he was more or less near point blank with her. A few more coins headed to his position, but impacted on soft earth. Lorenzo flung himself forward, rolling as a trail of coins followed him until he rolled behind a tree.

Mana clicked her tongue, obviously getting annoyed. Lorenzo ducked from the side of the tree, both guns out and pointing at her, and started to run. She ran and kept pace, both running through the trees parallel to each other. Neither daring to fire.

Well, one did. She launched coins, and from the midpoint of the two, clouds of bluish powder erupted, as coins sailed lazily away. Surprised, Mana fired another burst of coins, only to have them sniped from the air by Lorenzo. Both stopped when they entered a clump of trees.

"How's your spending money, little girl?" he taunted, loading both his pistols from behind a tree. Holding both USPs in one hand, he grabbed two magazines and lined them up in the wells, before sliding home. Not caring anymore, he slammed both slides into the tree bark, pulling down, the bark catching on the sights, and while pulling himself up to the branches, he effectively chambered rounds into the barrel. Same deal when he reached a low branch to stand on, she shot where he appeared, only to have him shoot the coins, only this time, each scored a hit.

They both missed one. A chalk round grazed her face, leaving behind a bluish-reddish mark, and a little stinging sensation from the electrical spell, while 100-yen coin cut his cheek.

"Tired yet, Ruizu-san? You must be down to your last spare magazines." She was out of coins, and resorted to a pair of pistols herself, her trademark Airsoft Desert Eagles.

"Only if you are. Your name is Tatsumiya Mana, am I right?"

"Yes, you are Lorenzo Ruiz..." she started to say, before she had to dodge from his shots, using one of her pistols to block a barrage of chalk rounds, dropping it due to the electrical spell that traveled through the mostly metal airsoft guns and up her arm. She inhaled the chalk powder as well, coughing strongly due to the electrical residue in the powder that was now in her nose, lungs, mouth. She did not see him rush her. He had taken advantage of her misfortune to position himself close and to her side. Bad for her, good for him.

"Yipee-ka-yay, shirne maiden," he said while delivering a disabling kick to her side. She rolled with the blow, firing back. A metal BB got Lorenzo's head, as he shot back. When he recovered, she could be seen jumping from branch to branch in the tightly grown trees further into the forest.

"Damn Hamster," he muttered, chasing after her, following her in the trees.

--

_Library Island, Mahora Academy  
__0737 hours, local time_

The island in the center of the lake ran a kilometer lengthways and half that wide, connected to the main city by a two-lane paved bridge suitable for vehicular traffic. Taking up the entire island, the Mahora City Central Library was a modest, yet awe-inspiring monument to knowledge and wisdom. It was said to house a copy, if not the original print, of every written page ever penned by the hands of man.

This having been explained by Yue Ayase, a short girl with a perpetually-dour expression, a box of clam vinegar juice in her hands, and waist-length blue hair pulled into a pair of braided tails. With too many people in the group to rely on Sabashii's car and the twin motorcycles of Seno and Motoko for transport, the procession had commandeered a non-tracked tram car to take to the island. Haruka drove the tram, and her skill indicated that there probably wasn't a vehicle you could put in front of her that she couldn't operate near-flawlessly.

The rest of the group had paired off and taken seats at random. Yue and Nodoka were in the front left, directly behind Haruka, and behind them sat Setsuna and Konoka. Across from Yue and Nodoka were Nealla and Kaolla, with Asuna and Negi and Naru and Mutsumi behind them in sequence. Shinobu and Kitsune were in the third seat on the left row, where Shinobu and Konoka were carrying on an idle conversation about cooking. Haiken sat in the very back on the right side, and Seno and Motoko were flanking the tram on their motorcycles.

"At first I was worried that we'd have to travel into the depths of the library to find the information you're looking for," Negi was saying to the four Kuro heroes on either side of him, "but the Headmaster told me that there's a secret room that contains most of our documents on various magical subjects. It's in the main floor of the library, so we won't have to worry about the various traps that infest the lower levels."

Naru nodded her head at the boy-teacher's explanation. "What's with the discretion on the topic?"

If it was possible, Negi dropped the volume of his voice even lower. "Konoka, Setsuna, Asuna, and Nodoka all know about my magic. Yue doesn't, and I'd like to keep it that way. The less who know about my being a mage, the better."

"Then what are you going to do with her once we get to this room of magic books?" Mutsumi asked airily.

"Well, my idea right now is to have the other girls lead her off to some other part of the library while we're in there. The Headmaster has ensured that one of our mage librarians is on duty this morning, so all we'll need to do is find you the books you need and we can take them out of the library."

Nodding, Mutsumi leaned back on the uncomfortable bench, watching as they drew ever nearer to Library Island.

Setsuna leaned back forcefully into the seat, and flicked a stray strand of her fringe from her eyes. Nervously, she glanced at Konoka out the corner of her eye. Konoka seemed none the wiser, and carried on her culinary conversation without a moments pause. Setsuna blushed, nibbled at her inner lip. Slowly, she edged her hand towards Konoka's, which was perched carelessly on the seatback. Just as their skin was about to meet, Konoka moved her hand to scratch her head. Blushing even more now, Setsuna let her hand fall into her own lap. She cleared her throat quietly, and glanced out the window, cursing herself for being so frightened.

Haiken sat in the back, flipping a kunai around in his hand boredly. "They keep trying to ban me out of this place. I don't see what the big deal is, the Library's supposed to have every book ever, right?" He was really talking to himself, rather loudly, then exclaimed - "SO WHY CAN'T I FIND ICHI-ICHI TACTICS!?" He wailed, throwing himself back down in his unoccupied back row and laying back down, hugging his knife.

Kaolla was looking as bouncy as ever, prepared to pounce on anyone who made too much movement. Haiken got that reward, as he leaped up, exclaiming about the book, only to find Kaolla perched on his shoulders a moment later, as though she was light as a feather.

"Are Ichi-Ichi Tactics tasty?"

Haiken grinned. "You bet..." Then he looked up and saw who it was. "Wait, how old are you?" He started giving that shifty look for officers. "I don't want to get caught for soliciting to minors again..."

"Old," Kaolla responded, before monkeying down off Haiken's head, to resume her seat beside Nealla.

Nealla, meanwhile, remained seated, saying little, merely staring at the youngest mage of them. Very little was said or done on her part, merely listening to them talk about the tactics once they entered the library.

"Considering the likelihood of your infrequent magic use, as well as the frequency with which it may end up revealed, due to unforeseen events," this addressed to Negi, "it's likely that most, if not all of your students will eventually learn of your magic usage. While I've heard the penalties are strict, wouldn't it be better to let them know before hand, and then swear them to secrecy? I believe that might be more prudent than sneaking around and ending up going into a panic every time someone else finds out about it."

And then she went silent again, hands folding into her lap. She was a far cry from Kaolla, despite the fact that the two young women were identical.

As the tram reached the library parking lot and Haruka maneuvered toward a group of parking spots large enough to accommodate their vehicle, Negi looked sheepishly at Nealla and poked his fingers together. "Well, I don't want to burden them with that, is all. I want to keep them out of trouble as much as I can."

Nealla, preparing for the stop, regarded Negi with a critical eye. "It seems that more than a few of them have been willing to share your burden. And from what I've heard, many more are willing. But I will defer to your decision, as it isn't my life." Then she stood, smiling down at the younger man. "Besides. Life is too short to worry about it."

Meanwhile, the motorcycle-driving pair pulled up into the parking lot, minimizing space by parking both vehicles in a single spot. As they waited for the tram to stop and its occupants depart, the couple removed their helmets and let them dangle from the handlebars of their motorcycles as they stepped off the crotch rockets.

Sharing a private conversation between themselves, Seno looped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug, then kissed the side of her head and began to walk toward the library with his arm still around her. Motoko shook with amusement and slipped her right arm around his waist, hooking her fingers in one of his belt loops. One could very nearly see the hearts popping into the air behind them and drifting slowly to the ground like something out of Zelda.

--

_Forest, Exact Location Unknown_

Mana and Lorenzo continued to fight. They were down to the barebones already. Lorenzo had no more ammunition left, and after a brutal hand to hand session with the girl, and was shooting back with the unfamiliar weapon.

To many people, this would've been merely an inconvenience. But to a highly trained person like Lorenzo, that affected his accuracy for the first few shots, having been expecting the kick of a Desert Eagle, he overcompensated, and his tilt, although not that noticeable, did nothing but alert Mana to where he was. The continued on, and it was a war of attrition basically.

"Give it up Ruizu-sama, you have no more ammunition left," she taunted, as she fired her own weapon, which then proceeded to have the slide lock back. She tossed the weapon into a clearing, and walked out. He was already standing there in the open.

"You knew I was out of ammo?" she asked, as he tossed his gun back where hers was.

"T'was merely a hunch," he said before stepping forward. She did the same, until they were within striking distance of each other. With a curt bow, they started.

Mana spun to kick him, while he blocked it and went forward to attack, it was in this manner that the two fought, around the clearing, exchanging blow per blow. To articulate every kick, blow, block, and dodge would've confounded even Jet Li's stunt director, so we shall move forward, 30 minutes later. Both fighters were of good training, but in the end, a misstep on her side finished it. With a blow to the stomach, both slumped down. Bruised, with blood running down numerous cuts on their faces, both sporting a black eye and a puffed cheek. Both were breathing heavily. She made a half-assed attempt, he dodged, and slapped her across the head with the back of his hand.

"I lost..." she said, grunting.

He helped her up to her feet, and they collected their things. Leading her back to the stream, he retrieved his trench coat and cleaned himself up. As he washed himself, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up, and he dodged the kick Mana had thrown. She fell into the stream, but not without dragging him into it. As they fought again, he wrestled her up and out of the stream before confronting her.

"Fine, you win. Go grab your money," he said, and shook his head, and started in the direction of the shrine, now visible. She followed him, and after appologizing profusely to her parents, who nearly proceeded to beat the living shit out of him, she explained some fabricated story and they grudgingly allowed him in.

"So...how will you collect the money?" he asked, as he sat, in the very awkward Japanese style. He wore a spare set of robes, her father's, and looked around.

"She said you would know."

"I don't." Their eyes locked for a second, and she sighed. It was at that point her father came in, and with a polite bow, gave Mana an envelope, before turning to Lorenzo.

"It has been some time since a Department agent came. We were meaning to give her that account information a long time ago, but we wanted to wait some more." He said, and quickly left. Dumbfounded, both laughed nervously and continued on their earlier discussion before the topic of money had come up.

--

_Library Island_

Negi led the group through the first floor of the library, past the rows upon rows of bookshelves crammed full of all manner of material ranging from astronomy to existential theory. Without preamble, he moved toward the stairwell up to the second level, explaining as he went, "The material you're looking for is all on the second floor."

Almost on cue, Nodoka and Konoka fell in to either side of Yue. "Come on, Yue," Konoka said, "Paru wanted us to meet her in the librarians' office for a group meeting." The healer-in-training turned a smile to her guardian. "You can come too, Secchan."

Setsuna returned her Ojou-Sama's smile, and then proceeded to follow, albeit somewhat behind, the other three girls. Her shoes clicked across the library floor pleasantly. As she walked, she glanced up at the bookshelves that towered above them, thinking to herself that she would never have the time, nor the patience, to read them. She didn't have the love of books that Konoka did. At this thought, she allowed her gaze to once again fall upon her precious Ojou-Sama. She watched the way Konoka's behind swayed elegantly above her graceful legs with each step, and found her cheeks soon aflame. Swallowing hard, she lowered her eyes, lest one of them noticed her staring.

As the Library Exploration Committe disappeared to another part of the library, Negi clarified, "The wing where magical tomes are kept is hidden by an illusion spell. The room may seem a little small, but it exists within a pocket dimension and is therefore fairly limitless, and there are unseen servants who can help you in your searches."

Haruka raised an eyebrow. "Are there that many books that are magical in nature?"

The boy teacher nodded. "Yes, Urashima-san. The magical wing contains several hundreds of thousands of volumes, and they're not exactly stored in the most user-friendly manner."

Haiken piped up, from wherever he happened to be at the moment, sliding in and out of formation at random, seemingly. "I suggest looking in the back forty, the light isn't so bright back there, but it's got alot of nasty adult-oriented magick-stuff. I picked a few things up myself, very interesting reading." He gave a lecherous grin, the shadows dancing along the walls - literally. Oh yeah, this guy was crazy.

Kaolla and Nealla both remained silent at this point, following along behind the others. There was little that either girl could say, at this point. The elder of the two did seem a bit preoccupied, though.

Up to the second floor Negi led the group, carrying on a casual discussion with Asuna and a white ermine critter that moved from shoulder to shoulder on both of them as though it were on crack.

Eventually, they reached what appeared to be an out-of-the-way utility door randomly interrupting the ordered rows of bookshelves. Negi glanced around to ensure that no one was watching or listening, then lifted his hand toward the door and closed his eyes.

"Watchful spirits of knowledge and time, allow us through the hidden gateway, grant us access to the wisdom of ages."

There was a flash of magic and light, and the standard office building-style doorway shifted appearance into what one would expect to find at the entrance to a wizened mage's tower: wood of an exceptional grain, with an elegantly-carved maiden in the center of the door, holding a book in either hand, words written on the book in an ancient script.

The maiden's wooden eyes rolled open, and she gazed out upon the group gathered before her. _"Ye who seek the knowledge that I keep, answer my riddle true, or in ignorance ye weep."_

Seno scowled. "Dammit, riddles. I hate riddles."

"I don't," Nealla's comment was quiet, as she stared at the maiden figure on the door. "It's one of the things I was required to learn." There was a pause, and then, "Besides. Riddles are just brain-teasers. Anyone with even a hint of intellect can solve them, if they just apply knowledge, and try not to think too literally."

"I think I just got called stupid," Seno muttered with a scowl.

"Or a literal thinker, which you are," Motoko replied, nudging him with her hip.

Without further preamble, the guardian maiden's wooden lips moved again. "_Where is the only location in which yesterday does not precede tomorrow?"_

Naru thought about it for a moment, scratched her head, and then offered, "A history book?"

No response from the maiden.

Haiken scowled. "The answer is me hosing you down with gasoline and setting you aflame, move the fuck out the way. Don't have time for yo' riddles, foo'." He loped forward and put his boot to the door, attempting to kick it open.

The response to Haiken's kick was immediate and left no question that solving the riddle was the only way in: He was propelled backwards like a thrown football by a concussive magical force, only to be stopped and repelled forcefully by a second barrier ten feet away.

Haruka watched dispassionately. "Neat little system. The defenses on the door blow you back, and a second shield stops you from flying into the sight of any civilians nearby and deals more damage. I imagine that there's also a sound suppressing field around us."

Negi nodded at her as he watched the ninja fall flat on his face. "Mahora takes great precautions to both protect its magical stores and ensure that those of the mundane world do not learn of its secrets."

In the back of the group, Seno nudged his old friend with his boot. "You shouldn't waste your time. I'm thinking that door has SR Plot, ER/Plot, and DR/Plot."

Motoko looked at her husband as though he was speaking another language. "Come again?"

"D&D technical terms. I'll explain if I can ever get you to agree to play."

There were a large number of shouted expletives in several recognizable languages, and a couple in inhuman tone and word. Haiken was seen as a black streak, flying back past the party above their heads, stretched into a flying sidekick, aimed for the door. "RIDDLE THIS, YOU HARDWOOD HARPY!" Well, he was known for his persistence, if little else.

As the Haiken-missile went airborne, Kitsune was busy pondering the riddle like everyone else. Suddenly she grinned, held up a finger, and called out matter-of-factly, "It's a dictionary. A dictionary's the only place where ya find tomorrow before yesterday."

"_Correct,"_ the maiden intoned, before fading back into the wood of the door, which then proceeded to open inwards, right before Haiken would've otherwise hit the barrier.

"Count on the resident drunkard to think literally enough to get it," Naru muttered.

Haiken keeps flying, his battlecry ending in a confused gurgle of "Raggle Fraggle! Fucking lag!" and the sound of something large colliding with something larger, and then the tell-tale sound of a cascade of books, a small handful of which came sailing out of the room.

The figure just inside near the door watched the other figure fly, raising an eyebrow as it collided with a bookshelf. He sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose under his glasses, before setting them back into place, mumbling, "Note to self: Don't grab it..when you stick it.

Still, at least he wasn't bored now. He had no idea why he was summoned here in the first place, but maybe it had something to do with the interloper. Or interlopers, as the case may be. He could hear voices, and he's sure these aren't in his head. He walked out of the shadows into where the light was entering, still in his school uniform, with his glasses on, and a sword at his side.

"Very clever, Mitsune-san," Negi was saying as the group began to advance. "Quite a clever riddle, considering that it was related to a li-"

"Oi, Negi," Asuna interrupted, nudging the boy teacher's head with her elbow. She had seen the fellow step out of the shadows.

Negi stopped, looked up at Asuna, and followed the direction of her gaze, to spot the armed boy wearing a Mahora uniform. "Oh, um. You are?"

In the back of the group, as attention was drawn forward to the armed boy, Seno pushed forward. Unarmed though he was, he could still provide one useful service: Distraction. But alas, before he could move up to even look menacing, a book came flying out of the room and smashed dead into his face, knocking him to the floor.

In only a mild amount of distress, Motoko pulled her thoroughly-stunned husband up off the floor, looping his arm around her shoulders, and then looked down at the book that had hit him. The title on its cover was "_Heavenly Sword: A Complete History of Shinmeiryuu_"

Raising an eyebrow, the Shinmeiryuu heiress leaned down to collect the book, turning it over in her hands. "How very...timely... I believe Seno once mentioned that he felt as though some higher being was scripting out his life for purposes of comedic amusement. This feels like just one of those moments."

The schoolboy adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose with two fingers, then closed his eyes and nodded, as if listening to something. He sighed, and reached into his shirt for something that looked like a rather large slip of paper, or card. It flashed slightly, and created what looked like a large chariot drawn by two horses, as well as a rider.

"Gather the books on this list."

He reached for a blank sheet of paper, and closed his eyes, and the paper vanished into nothing. What appeared in his hand was a list, made of parchment. Written on it was a list of books. An extensive one at that.

"Place the books in your chariot, and take them to the far table there. Once that is done, you may dissipate." He took his place sitting again after that, looking rather dispassionate about the entire thing. "I've been told I'm to gather certain books for you all. Up until a moment ago I had no idea why I was even summoned here, to be honest. How troublesome."

"Still doesn't tell us who you are, kid," Haruka said matter-of-factly, the fingers of her left hand twitching slightly, an instinctive need to puff on a cigarette.

"Nothing could capably tell you who I am. Who are you? Who are we all? There are a thousand 'yous' within you. The graceful angel you, or the cruel demonic you. Do any of us know who we really are? And can we in good conscience, say we do even when we do not? To know thyself, that is what is most important." He shrugged then. "If you want my _name_..well, that's easy. I claimed my name long ago. It is Nanjou Masaru. Pleasure to meet you."

Haruka nodded slightly. "Right then...Masaru."

Negi still looked woefully confused, almost on the verge of the arm-flailing panic attacks he was famous for. "You were...asked to gather certain books for us? I suppose then...that there are a lot?"

As if to answer the boy mage's question, the chariot and rider returned, with the chariot chock-a-block full of large, mostly leather-bound, some looking positively ancient, books. The group gathered around the chariot and inspected the titles:

"_A Cultural Study of Djinn and Their Characteristics and Physiology_"

Kitsune eyed that book's title. "That one's a mouthful."

"No kidding," Naru replied, looking down at the one in front of her: _The Complete History of the Heaven's War_.

Haruka picked up a large, black book and brushed the dust off its cover. "_Legend of the Heaven-Slayer_, huh."

Kaolla had previously gone off to lead the non-magically inclined folk alway, but managed to sneak back when their backs were turned, and she popped up beside Nealla without so much as a sound. The elder of the two looked at her not-quite twin, and started going through the pile of books.

"Nealla, that one," commented the girl with the ponytail as she bounced on her feet and pointed at the book near the bottom of the chariot, leaning forward over the edge.

Nealla shook her head slightly and stepped forward, pulling the large leatherbound book free from the bottom, and running one hand over the dusty cover, which read '_On MolMol_'

"Interesting. I didn't know there were books like this outside of the Molmolian Libraries, did you?"

Sobering, Kaolla shook her head at Nealla, and the two exchanged a long look before taking the book to a table and cracking the pages, hunkering together side by side to read.

Asuna reached into the pile and extracted an ornate book, its title written in regal script: "_Djinnistan: What Is It, Where Is It?_"

Standing next to Asuna, Shinobu watched the younger Mahoran girl pick up the large book without any visible strain, and figured that they were all large, but lightweight. And when she tried to lift the book _In-Depth Mana Studies_, she quickly learned that this was not going to happen.

"Ooh, books," Mutsumi said in her sing-song tone, reaching in to grab the book titled _Immortality: Fact and Fiction_. She managed to get it out, and spin around as though to drop it on a table and read it, but the heavy book slipped out of her hands and went flying through the air.

Directly toward the collapsed bookshelf and pile of mess that Haiken had gone into.

Masaru adjusted his glasses then, and chuckled. "I've got some information on you all. You're all very diverse." He looked at the teacher of Class 3-A. "You're the genius Negi aren't you? Heh heh. Among Mahorans, I consider you my rival when it comes to being a prodigy."

Negi blinked at Masaru, and the only thing that kept him from going into an arm-flailing panic was Asuna putting her palm on his head and forcing him down. "You oughta look someplace else to find a rival, kid. Negi here can barely wipe his own nose without getting into trouble."

She was ribbing the boy good-naturedly, of course, as was pretty obvious by the grin she wore and the knuckle-rubbing into Negi's scalp.

Haiken was extricating himself out of the pile at the time. "Negi? A rival? I think you need to aim a little higher, kid. Taking a scrawny, no-accou-..." The tome slammed into his head at that moment, taking him into another bookshelf and dropping another pile of books on him.

"ACH! MEIN LAMEN!" He thundered out of the pile, sending the top books into the air to drop unceremoniously back to the ground in a cascade. "What the HELL?" Haiken picked up the original tome that hit him. "Immortality, huh? FACT! I'll prove it! I think you Heaven-types are immortal, so let's give it a test run!"

He figured it had to have been Naru who threw it, what with Mutsumi looking all frail and unbalanced, and he chucked it at Naru. "If it doesn't kill her, she's immortal, or her ass is fatter than it already looks and it bounces off."

Naru, having picked up the history book on the Heaven's War and begun to inspect it, oh-so-conveniently turned so that the heavy book she was reading was between her and the book thrown by Haiken, thus protecting her from its impact.

She staggered back from the force of the blow, then lowered her book and glared at the ninja. "Hey, what the hell was that for!?"

Over near the door, Motoko leaned against the doorjamb and flipped through the Shinmeiryu book. "Another day, more ways we learn to kill each other."


	18. Mahorafest Begins!

"_...And that was the first time I encountered the Kuro crew. I remember every detail about that first meeting. To this day, I never paid for that door!__"  
_- Hiroyuki Murakami; 'Wild at Heart'

**Chapter XVII:  
****Grand Showing!**

**Mahorafest Begins!**

_June 22, 2007  
__Mahora Academy, Main Street  
__0950 hours, local time_

The streets of Mahora Academy were lined with people waiting for the beginning of the biggest party of the year. The main route was filled with the participants of the opening parade, with everything ranging from a giant Ball Mobile Suit balloon to a full-scale replica of an Imperial AT-AT walker.

Near the parade route, a gaggle of girls from Negi's class were watching the goings-on, and the incoming visitors, in surprise. "Guys, they're letting people in already!" basketball hotshot Yuuna Akashi exclaimed.

"Then we'd better get back to class," class swimmer Akira Okochi replied, and the group of girls left to return to their classroom.

Overhead, a squadron of seven biplanes flown by members of the Aviation Enthusiasts' Club roared toward the main thoroughfare. In the cockpit of the lead biplane, the squadron leader spoke into his headset, "Right then, let's show 'em what we got!"

"_Yes, sir!"_ the other pilots cheered back.

As one, the seven biplanes began trailing colored smoke as they split into a fleur de lis formation, eliciting cheers from the crowd below.

"Cool!" Makie Sasaki exclaimed.

"And loud," Akira said with a smile.

Near the head of the parade route, the Kuro crew had gathered into a loose group near a small convenience store. Seno stood leaning against a lamp post, wearing his black shoes, his UNSC hat, blue jean shorts, and a red T-shirt with a blue outline of a dragon along the lower edge of the front, swooping up over the right arm, and dominating the back of the shirt. He held a folded map of the festivities under one arm, and a 20-oz bottle of Coke in the other, half-consumed.

Motoko stood next to him, wearing a pair of Seno's khaki cargo pants and his Hardy Boyz black T-shirt. She idly reached over and grabbed the bottle of Coke from her husband, twisted off the cap, and took a drink.

"You see that walker they've got down there?" Seno asked, pointing down the parade route to the gargantuan four-legged machine. "Looked really detailed from the glimpse I got of it. I bet they've got a local 501st garrison here."

"That's the Imperial costumers, right?" Motoko asked.

The swordsman smiled at her the way a teacher would smile at an exceptionally-bright student. "Yeah. Even though the 501st includes clone troopers as well as Imperial guys, I'm not really too keen on joining them cos I hate the Empire."

"And you don't have the armor, either."

"Nope."

Inside the store, Kazue browsed the refrigerated section, smiling when her eye fell on a simple, triangle-packaged piece of onigiri. She quickly paid the cashier with a few coins from her jacket pocket before exiting and loitering near the door. Opening the package, she bit into the onigiri greedily, only to grimace in disgust.

"...What is this trickery?" she mumbled. "It tastes...this isn't authentic at all." She looked up, horrified. "The onigiri is a lie!"

A few people wearing full Halo 2 UNSC Marine gear passed by, those within earshot stifling their laughter. On their backs were various airsoft replicas of weapons, but mainly, it was the BR55 Battle Rifle. One though had an M90 Mk II Shotgun.

The rest of the crew was likewise gathered loosely near the convenience store. Naru, Kitsune, and Haruka stood clustered around a map of the campus activities that Haruka was holding, discussing this attraction or that ride. Shinobu stood near Mutsumi, half-hiding behind the Okinawan native from Kazue. Even though the ghostly ninja was pact-bound as a servant to Seno, whose spirit-bound blade he owned, the young domestic engineer was still a little spooked by her.

The oddity among the group, was the single oddity. Dressed in the same manner as a Halo 2 ODST, was Lorenzo. On his back, was a BR55 as well, and on his left thigh, an M7 SMG. Its stock was collapsed and the foregrip folded, it looked like an oversized pistol, but this airsoft gun has given Lorenzo massive welts when Kaolla took hold of it and shot him in the back after he completed building the M7. On his right was aonther weapon, this time another especially made airsoft weapon, it was a mockup of the M6C Magnum pistol.

"Oi, Seno. I'll see you all later. The university kids are gonna need me soon," Lorenzo said, as he headed off.

Seno looked up at the CIA agent, and nodded. "Hey, give me a call if they got some new Halo 3 stuff over there, like a beta or anything."

Apparently, earlier, Lorenzo got in touch with a University section of the Halo/Bungie Enthusiasts and the Mahora Military Enthusiasts. They created a cosplay/airsoft/civil defense type of group named Fireteam Charlie. Most of them were of course, Japanese. None knew how to act like actual soldiers. A few did, but weren't as good. Their cosplay quality though, was amazing. So Lorenzo stepped in, became de facto squad leader by majority vote, and was asked to come and help promote their group to university and town residents alike in their booth.

And that was where Lorenzo was going to stay. Or so he thought. The group actually sent him out to do promotion. It was at this point Lorenzo was glad for the breeze and the small air conditioning unit and properties of his costume.

"Seno, do you notice something missing?"

The swordsman glanced around a minute, then looked over at his wife. "No?"

Motoko gave him a sideways glance, then gestured around at their party. "The two most dangerous members of our group are nowhere to be found?"

He paused, realizing she was correct, and frowned, tossing the empty Coke bottle into a nearby trash can. "Sabashii's probably off chasing skirts. Just listen for shrieks. As for the ol' jackass? Probably finding trouble. Or lurking. He'll show up eventually."

It only took a fraction of a second. There was a sound that was something akin to the "whuff" of air rushing out of something, mixed with radio static. The white haired girl that suddenly appeared with her back to Seno's smirked, then reached over and smacked him on the back.

"I don't chase skirts, I woo women. I used to chase skirts all over the world, until I got to Scotland, then boy was I surprised!"

She grinned, a fangy grin, before her expression became sober. The girl looked to be about Mahoran school age, thirteen or fourteen. She was tan though, extremely so, with white hair and those same eyes. Shinobu might have noticed it first, just from the aura. This girl was indeed the group's lecherous companion. Except, breastiful. Very, for a fourteen year old.

"Heh, my entrance was pretty cool huh? I call it 'Sonido'. Well. Kubo Tite called it Sonido, I just stole it. Regardless. I have some things I have to do. After I do them, you won't see me for a while. It will use up my reserves to get it done. Be on your guard. There are things afoot that are making my spider senses tingle. No good can come of this."

She shook her head then, and looked about to make sure there were no spectators gazing at her directly, before she vanished into thin air in that same static-laden sound.

"Make sure the sound system is working fine," the black haired high-schooler popped off from atop the nearby float, to the student behind her who was adjusting volumes on the amplifiers just behind her.

"Do you want to do a sound check, Nanao?" the younger girl lifted her head from her work, her hand stilling on the amp as feedback boomed outward, and then faded.

"Alright, alright.. Gimme a few notes, and we'll do a warmup." She stepped forward and grabbed the microphone, as the music behind her started, and the girl who had been kneeling stood, fingers moving across her guitar.

Nanao, the girl in the red corset leaned forward, voice belting out into the microphone on cue.

_In the, spring of my life  
__I fell in love for the first time  
__Yeah baby, though I had faded many times before_

_God keep angels out of mischief  
__This is a quirk of fate  
__He is the one that I'm waiting for so long time_

The girls leaned forward to their respective microphones, voice lifting as hers faded, looks exchanged as she turned and moved among them, mic lifted from its stand, smiles passing between them at their shared passion.

_Baby I'm falling love with you  
__In want you & I want you  
__To need me so hard  
__My desire it makes me crazy._

Nanao turned then, walking back toward the front of the float, each step punctuated with the music her band mates brought to life.

_A Little Black Butterfly  
__How can I be beautiful?  
__If I have a sweet voice like you  
__Do you think he will love me?  
__I believe in my passion  
__Passion is dedication  
__To something you believe...  
__Can't stop, oh, lovin' you.  
__Yeah, yeah, yeah yeaaaah_

_How do you know if the one you love is true?  
__Because he said so?  
__I am just hungry for love  
__I just don't want to be alone._

_Too many people that I met  
__Too many people that I loved  
__But I am hard up for simple love and simple world _

She moved there on the front of the float, as they continued to play, drummer, guitarist, bass player, all in unison, voices rising, creating a beautiful flow of music that was somewhere between rock, and pop.

_Baby I'm falling love with you  
__In want you & I want you  
__To need me so hard  
__My desire it makes me crazy._

One hand reached out as Nanao fell into the flow of the music, her eyes closing, not seeing the parade-ready street, but the screaming fans she had grown used to, empty hand raising skyward.

_A little girl, lovin' you  
__How can she be beautiful?  
__If she has a pure heart like me  
__Do you love her just a while?  
__If you want her to change she can change for you, right now  
__Even though she has gone out of your sight  
__Can't stop, oh, lovin' you_

Three female voices rose again, all eyes closed, moving with the music, no thought given to anything but the song they were playing.

_I wanted everything and so everything  
__I didn't want everything and so everything  
__I just want be beautiful and beautiful  
__I'm just lovin' you_

The mic was slid back into place on the stand as her head weaved to the music, and she leaned forward, almost straddling the mic, her voice raising in unspoken words to tune into the music.

_Lovin you, __**Ohhohhhhh!**_

She leaned back off the mic, stepping back amidst the group, voice raising without the mic close to her, filling the air around the float with the sound of the melody that they poured their hearts and souls into.

_A little black butterfly  
__How can I be beautiful?  
__If I have a sweet voice like you  
__Do you think he will love me?  
__I believe in my passion  
__Passion is dedication  
__To something you believe...  
__Can't stop, oh, lovin' you._

_A little girl, lovin' you  
__How can she be beautiful?  
__If she has a pure heart like me  
__Do you love her just a while?  
__If you want her to change she can change for you, right now  
__Even though she has gone out of your sight  
__Can't stop, oh, lovin' you._

Nanao fell silent as the other three voices lifted into their microphones, giving them their spotlight.

_I wanted everything and so everything  
__I didn't want everything and so everything  
__I just want be beautiful and beautiful  
__I'm just lovin' you _

_I wanted everything and so everything  
__I didn't want everything and so everything  
__I just want be beautiful and beautiful  
__I'm just lovin' you_

Her voice blended in with the rest of the girls in the band as she leaned forward again, one hand hugging the mic, while the other waved through the air, caressing it, almost imploring.

_I wanted everything and so everything  
__I didn't want everything and so everything_

And the music tapered off with the last lines, relying solely on their voices to carry the last of the melody.

_**I just want be beautiful and beautiful  
**__**I'm just lovin' you-ou..**_

The Kuro crew joined in with the rest of the spectators nearby who were applauding and cheering the simple sound check. It was shaping up to be a lively and fun-filled day. At the edge of the group, Shinobu's eyes reverted to their natural dark blue color from the tell-tale lavender of her Byakkugan aura-scanning ability, and she looked over at Mutsumi.

"Mutsumi, I saw another one," she said, pointing toward the crowd she'd been scanning. "A white aura like ours. Standing over there by- Oh."

At the same time that Shinobu looked back to see the person with her normal vision, Kitsune spoke up, "Hey, isn't that that kid we met in the library? Ma...something?"

"Masaru," Haruka corrected, giving the fox a sideways glance.

"Yeah, right, somethin' like that."

"Guess we get to go tell him that he's part of our destined group," Naru said, starting toward him. She glanced back at Mutsumi, and called back over her shoulder, "Man, you really missed your count when you told us last year that we were all there was to this Chosen Heroes thing."

Mutsumi smiled airily and rested a hand on her brow as she followed her friend and fellow Tokyo University student. "Originally, all of you were all there were going to be," she said. "But I am hearing of troubling events through the Lifestream, and so I've had to...well, activate some more units, if you will."

"That doesn't really bode well for us then, does it?" Seno asked, joining the group. He turned a glance back toward Kazue to see if she was following, then turned his attention back to the Okinawan native and laced his fingers through Motoko's.

"How many more will be joining us?" Motoko asked, squeezing her husband's hand.

Mutsumi took a moment to count on her fingers, then answered, "Counting the young man Masaru, six more. My predecessor had mentioned a seventh possibility, but I've yet to locate him or her, even using the Lifestream to aid in my search."

"Strange," Naru murmured, and by then the group had reached the lead float that Masaru was standing right beneath.

Masaru turned his head and adjusted his glasses much like he did before, when the group first met. He still carried that sword on his hip, but oddly, the normal people didn't seem to notice; either they figured it's because the young man was supposed to have it as part of the float crew, or it had some kind of magical stealth. Either way, would it really matter? Mahorans were all kind of dense anyway. An earpiece rested in his left ear, and it was obvious he'd been listening to something, quite possibly still was. He tilted his head slightly to the side when the group arrived, his voice as flat as always.

"I wasn't aware you would be joining us. To be honest, it might be welcome for once. With my girlfriend up there singing, I am for the most part, relegated to performing guard duty. She just recently became a musical name. With her talent and my connections, it was assured to happen, of course. Ho, ho ho..."

Masaru pushed his glasses up, and the light reflected off of them in the usual anime style sinister style; his eyes became invisible, only the light on his glasses showed as prominent, and he wore a creepy little smile. It was amazing how close anime could be to real life sometimes. He became serious after the slight outburst, obviously he had just been expressing his own shady brand of humor, at least one would hope so. He appeared a bit creepy when he did that. His eyes ran over each member of the group, before they fell on Seno.

"Things should be heating up soon. Mahorafest has a lot of things to do, and with the fighting tournament coming up, you all probably won't see a lot of me. At least not until the fighting starts, in any event. I'm going to be in the tournament as a representative of the martial combat club of my school. When she's done with her singing, I'll introduce you all to Nanao. She's a real cutie."

He started to sing along with the next song that came up on his mp3 player, since Nanao wasn't singing at the moment and was taking a break between songs, most likely..and it was kind of odd, coupling the song he sang with, alongside his kind of stiff and somber look.

"_Kyoo mo kootsuu ruuru wo mamoru yo. TEEN TITANS!  
__Suki-kirai naku nan demo taberu yo. TEEN TITANS!  
__Jishin kaminari kaji oyaji  
__Kokugo sansuu rika shakai  
__Kowai mon wa nani mo nai.  
__TEEN TITANS! GO!_"

Seno just kinda...stared blankly at the kid when he started singing that tune. Then he planted his forehead in the palm of his left hand. "I know this kid is not singing some Teen Titans."

"As if your playlist doesn't have some questionable material on it," Motoko retorted, glancing sideways at her husband. At the look he gave her, she raised an eyebrow and merely stated, "Pokemon?"

"Hey, shut up."

Down at the end of the group, Shinobu was quietly asking Mutsumi, "Should we say something now?"

The Okinawan native, ever with that airy smile on her face, leaned her head to the right, then answered, "Not right now. Perhaps later. We should wait for the opportune moment."

Suddenly, from the various loudspeakers situated around the area, a male voice boomed out,

"**LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE 78TH ANNUAL MAHORAFEST HAS BEGUN!"**

Clearly, that was some sort of cue. The parade floats began to move, beginning with the float upon which Nanao and her band was to perform, and the cheers of the crowd rose to a much higher volume. Overhead, a number of dirigible airships filled the air, most of them passing over the major entrance area and releasing payloads of confetti over the city-academy.

A parade usher moved up to the Kuro group and began to usher them back toward the sidewalk. "Please stay off the parade route for your own safety."

As the group complied, Mutsumi turned to Masaru and called out, "If it's possible, could you please meet with us at the Chao Bao Zi restaurant at 12:30 PM? Bring your girlfriend with you." Then, in her characteristic persona, Mutsumi gave him a friendly wave before turning to join the rest of her comrades.

Back on the sidewalk, the Kuro crew began to move toward the Mahorafest Entrance Gate, a large bronze archway similar in appearance to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France. Naru was the first to speak up, "Okay, so we're supposed to meet Negi and his magic students at that Chao Bao Zi place at 12:30." She looked down at the map in her hands. "Now where is it?"

"It's over here between the student dorms and the Girls' Middle School," Kitsune answered, pointing a finger to the appropriate place on the map.

Haruka nodded. "That's the plan, so I guess until then, it's everybody for themselves. Just make sure we're all there at 12:30."

"Sounds good," Seno said, taking Motoko's hand. "Well, me and Motoko are off to the high school. Setsuna's part of their kendo club and she wanted us to come see her. See you kids around." Once through the entrance gate, the swordscouple headed off to the left, toward the Mahora Co-Ed Academy.

--

_World Tree Plaza  
__1000 hours, local time_

The announcement of the starting of the grand festival was his cue to get to work. He was one of the guards posted to keeping any other people from approaching the sacred tree in the center of the Academy in order to prevent anyone from becoming tricked into involuntarily answering any question with a quick 'yes'. As he had been briefed before the start of the festival, it had been discovered years ago that the magics flowing through several points around the tree had this strange effect most whenever anyone was attempting to confess their love, and whenever any couple announces such love amongst themselves at the tree at this time, it becomes... well, practically bound by Law.

Mazushida threw away the now empty cup into a trash can before taking up one of the positions with his fellow at duty guards, his own student uniform shifting in size and shape and becoming a suit of armor which spewed steam from the joints before fastening and contouring to his frame. The armor was unusually slim, a dark and spiked suit which covered him from head to toe, his newly fastened helm adorned with metallic phoenix wings to each side and an ebony horn protruding from the forehead. The pink headband which had been present on his forehead, no longer present there, had moved and grown into a pink cape that flowed and flapped in the wind, trace cherry blossoms actually falling from the cloth only to fade from existence altogether.

Crossing his arms together over his tight-plated chest, he would lean against the tree and keep a look out. While his appearance gave a serious visage of a sentinel, his mind was on not only his job but the Mahorafest. There was one event he had asked for time off to attend, and he would not miss it for the world.

"... Henshin A-Go-Go... soon'll be time t'show off m'goods and skill."

--

_Mahora University Parade Grounds  
__1005 hours, local time_

Lorenzo was being dragged everywhere. Their partner club, the Mahora Military Enthusasts, had an actual M1A1 Abrams, well, as close to the real thing. And he was being used to be somewhat of a display item.

_It could be worse,_ he thought, as he waved to the Japanese people crowding around them.

Two streets over, Koike Fujimoto handed out fliers and posed for people. He wore full ODST gear, much like Lorenzo, but his helmet was on a table, and he sweated in the heat. Lorenzo had helped Koike in his costume, giving him a miniature AC unit, but still it wasn't enough. Across his back was a BR55 Battle Rifle.

"Oi, Koike, look for our esteemed commander. We're about to let him have a break," one of their men said, a Marine who had his arms being held by two high school girls and getting his picture taken. Koike nodded and put his helmet on, and went to search for Lorenzo.

--

_Near Entrance  
__1008 hours_

Setsuna walked quickly, keeping her head low and moving effectively through the growing crowd. She wore a brilliant, clean hakama and gi, and small, comfortable sandals. They made almost no sound beneath her. Despite her efforts to control them, nerves bubbled up in her stomach. Performing in front of Seno and Motoko-neesama was a big deal, and while she was very excited, she was also very anxious. These thoughts occupied her so completely, she almost didn't see the people walking casually in front of her, laughing and talking. Stopping just in time as to not crash into them, she let out a small yelp. The man glanced over his shoulder at the sound, and Setsuna turned bright red.

"N-Nii-san!" she stammered, coloring deeper. "Hello.."

Seno waved to the shorter girl, then gave her a thumbs up. "Mornin', Set. Looks like you're ready to go."

Motoko smiled and hugged her adopted sister, then stepped back and tugged gently at her gi to straighten it out. "We were just on our way to come see you," she said. "What will you be showing at the demonstration?"

Setsuna blushed at the pampering, while also trying not to laugh. "Oh, just simple stuff really...nothing major. I'll be doing a _kiri-kaeshi_ display, with my _shinai_. And a couple of spars with some of the other students, though they'll probably just be really showy- for the crowd 'n stuff."

Motoko nodded and stepped back, satisfied that she'd undone whatever untidiness she'd caused in Setsuna's appearance. "You've always been exceptional at _kiri-kaeshi_, so the crowd will definitely not be disappointed."

Setsuna found herself smiling at Motoko's praise, her cheeks, as usual, more than a little pink. "I hope not," she added quietly.

"And hell, you trained in Shinmeiryu with us," Seno added, "so you better believe those spars are just for show." He leaned his head to the side, looking over Setsuna in her kendo outfit. Red and white, of course, the traditional Shinmeiryu colors. "Man, this reminds me of the old days. 'Cept you were white-headed back then."

Eying her nii-san with obvious humour, she gave way to a small smile.

"Indeed I did train with you," she said, still smiling, "but don't be so cocky. You're a dropout, Nii-san."

She ducked instinctively, waiting for a blow.

"As for my hair..." she muttered, still crouching, and rising a hand slowly to her head, patted it gingerly. She didn't say anything more.

"Dropout huh, yeah, that's right..." The swordsman nodded slowly, turned to the side, rubbed the side of his face, all of which were clear indicators that he was about to leap into an attack. But just as he would have tensed to strike, he turned and grinned at his sister-in-law. "But I can still kick your ass, can't I?"

Motoko rolled her eyes. "In a street fight, maybe. She'd maim you in a traditional swordfight, just like I do."

The swordsman shrugged exaggeratedly and stepped toward the sisters. "Hey, I gotta cover the deficiencies in our little Shinmei band. Can't all be traditional duelists, cos then we'd get fucked up in a back-alley brawl." He nonchalantly dropped his right hand on Setsuna's dark hair and ruffled the strands gently. "And you know I don't mean anything by it." He tugged on her ponytail to ensure she understood what he meant by 'it.'

Setsuna chuckled at Motoko's response, giving her brother-in-law a big grin. She giggled, watching him parade about in an air of self-importance. Knowing it for what it was, of course, she smiled fondly at him. But when his hands brushed her hair, her eyes darkened a little. "We should walk faster," she said. "I don't want to be late."

Kazue, breathing quietly, stepped quickly and lightly to join the trio, bringing up a finger to hush Seno and Motoko from speaking. She came up from behind Setsuna and, when close enough, brought up her hands to meet with the girl's sides. And thus began the tickling.

"'Ello, Setsuna." she crooned with a wink.

Setsuna almost jumped right out of her skin, being too caught up in her own hair-related thoughts to have sensed Kazue's presence. She shrieked, twisting from her captor's grip. "Just what do you think you're doing!?" she half yelled, whirling around. Her eyes softened. "Ahh, hello, Kazue," she said, nodding in a quick bow.

Laughing, Kazue gave the younger girl a soft pat on the shoulder, but stopped herself from giving her an old fashioned hair ruffle. It was too close to showtime. Instead, the ninja stood back and smiled, eyeing Setsuna with pride.

"My, you look pretty!" She nodded. "But you should keep an eye on your surroundings. You never know when someone'll throw mud on you." Kazue gave another wink. "On your way, de gozaru ka?"

Setsuna colored, smiling gently at the ninja. She shuffled her feet somewhat nervously.

"Will do," she said with more courage than she felt, all this hype making her anxious. "Shall we continue then?"

Motoko nodded, then moved to join Seno, where she pinched his side and shot him a glare. "Of course. It wouldn't do for Setsuna to be late from stopping and talking to us. So let's continue."

And thus the merry little band of reprobates set off on the rest of the way to the high school.

--

_Mahora Academy, Near Co-Ed High School  
__1012 hours_

Koike and Lorenzo sat around a fountain. Their heads, drenched in what was cold water. Koike actually stuck his head under a stream of water. Their necks were semi-sealed, due to the internal air conditioning still cooling their bodies. But the feeling of cold water was cooling to the face.

"Where to now?" Lorenzo asked. He was on break, after all.

"How about we see what's going on with exhibitions?" Koike asked, pointing behind them to the Mahora Academy Dojo.

"I'm not fond of swordies."

"Why's that?"

"I prefer to see the ability to see the cutting of one's life thread through a 10 magnification scope."

"..."

"Okay...let's just go."

--

_Mahora Co-Ed High School, Dojo  
__1015 hours_

Setsuna entered the dojo ahead of the others, her face now a cool mask of confidence. The room was already brimming with people; an eager audience and club members alike.

"Don't forget to take off your shoes," she said over her shoulder, directing this mostly at her nii-san as she smiled cheekily.

She gestured at them to take a place on the floor, making her way towards the front of the dojo. The other club members were hanging around there, talking excitedly. They greeted her cheerfully.

"Shouldn't we be taking our places soon?" she asked them seriously, though her eyes smiled.

"We were waiting for you, Setsuna-sempai," one of the younger students said, and Setsuna just grinned at him.

Kazue waved, smiled, and said good luck as Setsuna continued inside, followed by the others. Pausing for a moment outside, she turned to sniff the air hungrily. Her nose enticed her mouth to water as the scent of takoyaki drew her nearer to a food stand just a few yards away. She returned to the dojo with a 'boat' of octopus balls (a toothpick in each) and a little short on change. She slid off her shoes while carefully balancing the boat on one of her palms before quickly making her way inside.

Setsuna knelt at the edge of their performance area, her back straight. The other students followed her example, and soon everyone had taken their place. The audience too became seated, and silence fell over them. Setsuna's heart was beating wildly with anticipation, though she showed no sign of it. She wanted so badly to perform at her very best in front of her nee-sama. Her eyes fell over the stage before her; its smooth wooden surface seemed to stretch on forever. She inhaled deeply. This would be a piece of cake.

After removing their shoes, Seno and Motoko headed toward the spectator area, taking seats from which they could view the entire arena, as well as be seen rather easily by their half-demon sibling.

"Setsuna seems to have taken a shine to you," Motoko commented off-hand as they waited for the performance to begin.

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't make any sense to me. I thought she was obsessed with you."

The Shinmeiryu heiress smiled. "She's always looked up to me in the same way that I look up to _aneue_. I think, with you, you're the first strong male figure in her life that she's been able to look to."

"I guess so." Seno leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Even though she had that crazy-powerful Takahata guy as a teacher, she didn't have the sort of close connection to him that she's got with me, being her brother-in-law."

"...damn," the ninja mumbled softly, looking through rows to find an empty place to sit. Spying Seno's hair, Kazue slowly made her way through a few dozen people to sit nearly six feet from the pair. She settled down and popped an octopus ball into her mouth and waited for the show to begin.

At the entrance of the dojo, Konoka held her bangs out of her eyes with one hand as she deftly slipped her shoes off. Letting out a frustrated huff of breath, she noted that there were no seats left, so instead she settled herself against a wall near the stage. Idly playing with a strand of her dark hair, she scanned the room for her precious Secchan. When she spotted her, she smiled and clasped her hands in excitement.

Setsuna sat with her eyes calmly closed as the younger kendo students performed. She listened to the dull roar of applause, and hoped it would pick up. Upon hearing her name called, she rose gracefully to her feet and took her place. She cast her eyes over the audience. Her heart rate accelerated greatly. Kono-chan! Kono-chan was in the crowd! She wiped her sweaty palm down the side of her hakama, tightly clutching her _shinai_ with her other hand. Now she _really_ had to perform at her best. Clearing her throat, she addressed the audience.

"Hello everyone, and welcome. I hope you have all enjoyed the show so far. My name is Sakurazaki Setsuna, and I am going to demonstrate the _Kiri-kaeshi_, a common form of kendo routine. Basically," she added, smiling slightly, "It will involve me smacking another student upside the head."

The audience laughed here, and she flashed her siblings a nervous grin. She got a thumbs up and a wink in return.

"Let us begin."

She bowed low to the audience, resuming her place. Her 'victim', a third year student at Mahora, approached her with hesitation. The audience laughed again when the trembling kid put her bogu armor on to protect her head. When she was ready, they bowed. And the show began. Setsuna moved at lightning speed, dashing behind the girl before she had a chance to blink. With a flick of her wrist, her shinai hit the girl across the left side of her head. Bringing it up again, she successively struck the girl, alternating between the left and right side of her armored head. The girl shrieked, to which the audience applauded, as Setsuna leaped skyward. With a terrifying crack, she brought the _shinai_ down across the top of the girl's skull. Setsuna then twirled the _shinai_ around at an alarming rate, switching it from hand to hand. She took a few steps towards the girl. The girl's step faltered. Setsuna simply spun her weapon faster. Without warning, she rushed the girl. The _shinai_ spun around her head, striking it six times. When it stopped spinning, the girl swayed. The audience held their breath as she teetered. Setsuna grinned. Extending her finger, she gently poked the other student's chest. The girl fell instantly and lay unmoving on the floor.

"Don't worry," Setsuna said, turning to smile at the crowd. "She's just a little dizzy."

All through the display, Seno could only watch as Setsuna neatly and efficiently dismantled her opponent. He joined in the resulting crowd applause from the showcase along with Motoko; both of them could see the girl's desire for their approval written all over her face.

"Her skill and power are greatly improved, just as I suspected," Motoko said over the applause. "I can only imagine what she could do with her own weapon."

"Seems like she's as tough as you," Seno replied. "If not, then close, and she's definitely got the capacity to be pretty cold-blooded in battle. She took apart that girl like she was going to get stabbed if she didn't."

Glancing around the audience, Motoko's eyes fell on a dark-haired girl enthusiastically cheering for Setsuna. Smiling, the Shinmeiryu heiress drew her husband's attention to this. "Look over there, Seno," she said. "Konoe Konoka, the girl that Setsuna's been assigned to protect since she was a child. Setsuna must know she's here, and that's why she worked so hard."

The swordsman nodded. "And Setsuna's sweet on her anyway."

"Probably."

Konoka cheered after Setsuna's display, scanning the crowd idly as she did. She recognized Setsuna's sister Motoko, and her husband Seno sitting in the crowd, and many of their class-members.

Brushing the hair out of her eyes yet again; she really should get a trim, but she honestly couldn't be bothered; she made her way around the stage to come up behind the object of her affection, wrapping her arms around the other girl and squeezing tightly.

"That was amazing, Secchan!" she said in the kendo-girl's ear.

As the applause in the dojo began to subside, one pair of hands kept clapping. The obnoxious, loud, and singular applause seemed to slacken before slowing to a stop as a young man stepped out of the audience. He wore what resembled the traditional kendo uniform, but the sleeves were torn and instead of hakama, he wore hiked-up, puffy looking trousers. His entire outfit was a bright green, which contrasted with the darker, plainer colors that every other student adorned. His hair was red and looked quite stylish despite his ponytail. As he approached the stage he could be seen carrying what looked like a kendo variant of a naginata.

The young man chuckled heartily, stepping up onto the stage and laying down his wooden naginata. His smirk was visible throughout the dojo though a lolipop occupied the right corner of his mouth. He looked at the girls and laughed again, this time retrieving the sucker from his mouth and licking it. He snickered once more, before stifling his laughing. "Underclassman Setsuna Sakurazaki, the pride of the Kendo club." His glance switched from Setsuna to Konoka before falling back to the young kendo girl. He licked at his lolipop once again. "How many licks does it honestly take, Kohai-Sakurazaki? Well, hmmm?" He twirled the lolipop before crunching it audibly with his teeth.

He tossed away the small sucker stick and picked up his kendo naginata, bringing it to rest across his shoulders. He lowered his voice so only to be heard by Setsuna. "I bet she tastes sweeter than a thousand lolipops, coated with sugar and icing." He finished the remark by licking his lips. "Mmmm..." But moments after his obnoxious, snarky expression turned into one of pure joy. In his mind he thought, _Setsuna Sakurazaki, if I know one thing it that she's a loose canon when the honor of the one Konoka Konoe is jeopardized. She'll have no choice to fight...when I think about this I could've just challenged her to a match. This is more fun!_

His body shivered in anticipation. He smiled sweetly at Setsuna as though he was just saying hi, and gave a quick bow to Konoka. "My name is Hiroyuki Murakami, Mahora's one and only Lucky Star, Mahora's jack of all trades. But I'm sure you already know who I am, as if I need an introduction, just like I knew who you were." The young man behaved quite friendly as if he had no memory of what he just said, and he probably didn't have a clue. But hey, anything to make life more interesting.

Setsuna watched the young man with blatant distaste. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he approached, but she managed to keep her color in check. She ignored his question about the lolipop, choosing for herself it to be rhetorical. She didn't allow her facial expression to change either. But as he leaned down towards her and spoke of her Ojou-Sama, her dark eyes became stormy with rage. Her grip around her _shinai_ tightened as her jaw twitched.

"It matters not what you 'bet'," she replied equally as quietly, taking a step towards him. "The likes of you will never enjoy anything like it." She spoke calmly, almost with indifference. "As for who you are, Murakami-kun, I can't say I've ever heard of you."

She turned away from him, flicking her hand dismissively. She was aware of the eyes of everyone in the room upon her. "I cannot, however, let your rudeness towards Konoka Ojou-sama stand," she continued, knowing full well this was what he wanted, but knowing also that she wanted it too after that insult.

She turned back towards him, her resolve firm. Setsuna grinned. "Come on, then."

Sitting in the stands, Seno and Motoko didn't hear much of the newcomer's commentary toward Setsuna, but they did hear her response, the righteous fire in her words. Both of them sensed the strong flow of her ki running just beneath the surface, surging in response to her strong emotional reaction to the boy's words.

"She seems mad," Seno pointed out the obvious.

"Seems that he said something rather unbecoming about Konoka."

"And are you even at _all_ surprised that she's taking it in the exact same way that you or Tsuruko would?"

"No. So, you'll also bet on her?"

"Probably, yeah."

"Oh, seems the kendo club keeps their dogs ignorant and uninformed," Hiroyuki said in a singsong tune. "And I'm guessing it's irrelevant whether or not you've heard of me. You now know, and you'll remember too..." He grinned ear to ear and his eyes narrowed as he spoke these words. He loved how his taunt had worked in his favor and snickered at such. "Hmmm, Secchan was it?" Hiroyuki said mockingly. "so you say I'll never enjoy anything to do with your Ojou-sama, well... I have to say I'll enjoy this.." Hiroyuki kept his voice low. "And I know you only say that because you long for a taste yourself." He snickered.

An idea sprung into Hiro's head. "So, with that said how 'bout a wager? To make this fight interesting? Say...the winner get's a kiss from your Ojou-sama?"

_This'll blow the gasket,_ thought the satisfied Hiroyuki.

Setsuna stared. "_Don't_ call me Secchan," she said, without much volume or emotion. "And I also suggest that you try to keep some honor intact, Murakami-kun. Behaving this way is very insulting."

She managed to successfully ignore his comment about tasting Ojou-Sama, but couldn't help but feel some heat in her cheeks as he mentioned his wager. She looked at him a moment more, and then shook her head firmly.

"I am sorry, Murakami-kun, but I can simply not accept. I will not accept a wager on behalf of another." She cleared her throat slightly. "If this wager is to be accepted, it can only be done by Konoka Ojou-Sama."

Konoka reguarded the boy thoughtfully. "You know, Murakami-kun, I don't really like the way you're talking to Secchan. Or about me, for that matter." She wagged a finger in his direction, "You'll never get a girlfriend if you continue to act like that." She winked, and then linked her arm with Setsuna's. "And as for your wager..." she looked sidelong at her Secchan. "Absolutely not." She unlinked her arm and skipped away, only pausing to place the aforementioned kiss on Setsuna's already pink cheeks. "Good luck, Secchan!"

After being accosted by people at the gate and such, two ODSTs in their socks came forward just as Setsuna was facing off with the newcomer. They both looked at each other and nodded. On their hips were both especially modified airsoft guns looking like the M6D Magnum pistol. Both were high powered AEPs, and a little bit of magic was used in the barrel construction, making the BBs used, a 6mm 88g all steel BB, electrified. Koike didn't know this, of course, but Lorenzo had taken a liking to the boy.

He somewhat rudely made his way to where Seno and Motoko were, well, near them. He got several angry looks from some people, and while tapping his pistol and the large battle rifle on his back did lead others to glare at him more. He was with the wrong crowd. Taking some choice words, he calmly told them he had come to merely talk to two people. Even though they didn't approve, they grudgingly let him through.

"**Seno. Sitrep?"** he said, as he neared the two. Spoken in English, and directed only at Seno, he was reaching to a back pocket where a nifty little gizmo was located.

"**Just some kid asking for a beatdown,"** Seno answered to Lorenzo, likewise in English. "**Tweedle dumb there's picking a fight with Setsuna, and picking it good by the looks of things."**

Hiding his disappointment, Hiroyuki chuckled at the girl's comments, and nodded at Konoka's words. He blew a kiss to the brown-haired girl as she walked away. Before turning to the girl in front of him, he winked once at her. "Honor, huh?" he asked, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a small pack of chewing gum. Hiroyuki popped a strip into his mouth, dropped the wrapper to the floor, and brought his naginata down in front of him. "You're no fun, kohai-Sakurazaki..." sighed the young man, beginning to twirl his weapon. "But, I guess I'll have to make with what I have of this situation... No wager, no bet, no fun," he said through his audible chewing and popping of the gum.

He finally stopped twirling his weapon and brought it, along with his stance, into a ready fighting position. "I'll attempt to go easy on one of Natsumi's classmates,but accidents tend to happen." He switched his stance ever so subtly and an almost silent chime sounded. "_Good luck_ Secchan, good luck indeed...I'm sorry."

Setsuna watched him as he took his battle stance. In a single glance she took in the position of his feet, his hands, even the distance between his body and his weapon, and the way he held it. She blocked out the surrounding sound, focusing solely on her opponent. Then she rushed him. Holding her _shinai_ aloft, she swung towards the left side of his head with the front of the stick. At the last moment she flicked her wrist and the _shinai_ swung back around, unexpectedly jarring upwards into the right side of Hiroyuki's face.

The kendo sword smacked into Hiroyuki's right cheek with a stinging sensation, and he gave a small annoyed grimace at the impact. _A feint...cool, and this early too,_ thought Hiroyuki.

Hiroyuki shook his head and resumed chewing his gum. Luckily he had shifted the gum over to that interior of his mouth, which helped absorb the impact, so it only caused exterior damage. "What? Thought you'd catch me off guard and it'd be over like that? I can see you don't like talking."

With that, he twirled his weapon in a fast spinning motion in front of him to get some distance. Forcing her back, and keeping the twirling nearly constant he took a step forward and used the momentum to launch an attack to Setsuna's mid-section. He smirked and decided that he'd like to mimic her opening strategy, and swiftly redirected his attack into an upward swing aimed at her weapon. The head of the wooden naginata struck her shinai, sending it upwards, but she saw this attack, and the next, coming, loosening her grip just slightly to let her weapon move even further out of line.

As predicted, he brought his weapon back down to strike her clavicle with what would be a fatal blow were it a real battlefield and his naginata sporting a bladed head, but she rose her left arm, stopping the blow by intercepting the haft with the back of her forearm. Even as this motion occurred, she drew back her _shinai_ in her right hand and swung the bamboo sword at the side of Hiroyuki's head.

At the same time Set launched her counterattack, Lorenzo had pulled out a donut like machine from the pouch. As her blow struck, the mini UAV lifted from Lorenzo's open palm, the ducted fan providing lift while a small propeller and stubby wings added some forward flight and stability. There was a small camera in a swiveling turret in front. Pulling out a PDA, he got a direct feed from the UAV. Koike followed suit, and launched his UAV.

Koike was clearly favored by Lorenzo, seeing that he was the only one that got the nice cool toys. Nevertheless, Lorenzo handed the small, thin, PDA-like device to Seno.

"**Touch the screen, blue button, when the match is over,"** Lorenzo said in English. **"It'll recall the UAVs to you. Press the red button when both have landed, and they'll fly back to Fireteam Charlie. I can collect the PDA from you later and get a video of the match together when we meet back up at noon. I have a feeling Set won't claim an easy victory from this one, but my break time is almost over."**

With that, he and Koike left, clipping the boots on and heading back to where they came from. There was a small tactical demonstration in a shoot house back in the Fireteam Charlie area using modified paintball markers, and they were going to be late.

Seno looked over the PDAs, shrugged, tucked them into his pocket, and turned his attention back to the match.

_Amazing, she saw it coming!_ Hiroyuki thought as he swung up the lower end of his weapon to parry the strike to his head. As he changed his stance to break the weapon lock they found themselves in, his foot came down on the foil wrapper he'd dropped earlier, causing his weight to come out from under him. He fell back toward the ground, eliciting a few laughs from the audience, but as he fell, his right foot came up, seemingly random, but to Setsuna's keen eye, it looked like a trick attack in the making. She stepped to the side, bringing her _shinai_ up from below into her opponent's ankle, but he managed to turn the force of the strike into more momentum that was then used to roll out of the fall and back up to a standing position.

The two opposing fighters commenced a momentary standoff, during which he rested his naginata over his left shoulder and tilted his head against it, giving the half-demon a cocky grin. _Clever girl..._

He rushed forward again, leaping up into the air and, like something out of a kung fu movie, drove the naginata at her once, twice, three times in rapid succession while still in the air. Two of these she managed to block, though the third snuck past her _shinai_ defenses and caught her in the left shoulder, which was then used as a springboard to re-jump over her.

_Finally,_ Setsuna thought to herself. _This is finally getting interesting._

As he sailed through the air, she spun around, stepped back, and leaned down to lower her center of gravity, then brought her _shinai_ up into a strong, solid smack right into his undefended groin. This brought about a bout of murmuring from the audience, including one short, barked-out "Damn!" that had to belong to Seno.

The naginata-wielding kendoist let out a wordless exclamation of pain that sounded like the death shriek of an eight-foot tall split-chinned alien, the sudden expulsion of air from his mouth causing his gum to fly out with it as he landed in a tangled heap and came up on one knee, free hand clutching his abused privates. "Damn, Setsuna the ballbuster," he muttered. "This is...sorta...fun? Minus the aching nuts, of course."

She leaned her head just slightly to the side, giving him an unamused stare at his words as the gum flew past her. "That's disgusting."

He launched himself into a sudden attack, diving forward to baseball slide underneath her, defying several laws of physics, nature, and clothing limitations by managing to pass under and through her hakama without tripping her onto her face. Once through the other side, he planted the naginata against her back and used it as a brace to shove himself up into a roll before coming up onto his feet. Even as he did this, her _shinai_ lashed out, snapping into the back of his neck as he shoved back against her, sending her down to a knee, barely managing to hold her balance.

She stood and turned back to him to find him advancing toward her with his body crouched down, sweeping the wooden head of his naginata in front of him as though it were a broom, in the textbook manner that a horse-mounted spearman would use it to strike foes in front of him as he rode his horse through enemy ranks. Hopping back from the sweeping attacks, she brought her foot forward and planted it on the spear's head, halting its motion, then brought her other foot up beneath it and kicked up, at once sending the wooden weapon flipping away from its wielder and striking the back of his head with her own weapon.

The blow knocked him forward, but he simply used that to add extra momentum into a rising backflip, both feet catching her in the jaw in succession as he went up, snapping her mouth shut and sending her sprawling backwards, her _shinai_ flying away, as he landed awkwardly on one foot, swaying his entire body as though he were a master of drunken fist. After a moment, he recovered, then reached into his pocket and withdrew another stick of gum. "Sorry for spitting like that, Sakurazaki-san," he said. "All the flavor was gone." He paused to stick the gum into his mouth, then pointed to his pocket. "Want some?"

"No thank you, Murakami-kun," Setsuna answered as she rose shakily to her feet. "I'd rather not."

There was a metallic, coppery taste in her mouth. Scowling slightly, she turned her head to the side, away from the audience, and spat, and was not surprised to see a mouthful of blood hit the floor with a wet splat. Another round of murmurs went out through the audience. She stared at him a moment more, readying herself for an attack from him, but not making a move to attack nor to retrieve her weapon. Her head was aching from the kick, but she didn't show it. She just took her stance and waited, hoping her head would clear soon and wondering if Ojou-sama could see the blood on her face.

Hiroyuki realized he'd done something he had not intended. He dropped the gum he had offered and rushed to Setsuna, extending his palm into the air to signify he was done. He looked at her skull once, a faint smile still crossed his lips. "Damn...I told you accidents happen but I guess I should have restrained myself like I said earlier," he said with a slight chuckle, retrieving a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping some blood off of Setsuna's forehead.

"Enough!"

The voice of one Shinmeiryu heiress rang clearly across the hushed dojo as she stood from her place within the crowd, her right arm slicing out to the side. The blatant disregard to the rules and regulations of kendo, she had been willing to overlook as the match had not truly been officially sanctioned. But the line had been crossed when blood had been spilled, especially as it was Setsuna's blood.

The ambient temperature of the dojo seemed to drop about thirty degrees as Motoko fixed Hiroyuki with the most disapproving glare she could possibly muster. It wasn't the 'Demon Eyes' look; this situation far too serious for that nearly-comical gesture. "Murakami-san, I do not know what you wished to accomplish by challenging Setsuna-san and carrying on like a drunken baffoon, and I will not allow this to digress further. Are you so morally-bankrupt, Murakami-san, attempting to shame and ridicule a woman four years your junior?" She waved her hand toward the injured Setsuna to underscore her point. "I declare this contest to be over. You may leave this hall _now_, Murakami-san."

Her tone, and the slight growl with the word 'now' made it obvious that her statement was not an offer.

Setsuna watched Motoko gratefully. Her head was pounding more than she thought it should have been, and she dropped to her knees as Motoko began to speak. She felt proud and ashamed at the same time. Her pride was in that she had such a strong onee-sama, but she had wanted to win in front of them. It wasn't like she'd lost or anything...but this wasn't quite the same. She stared at the ground, watching the blood pour from her mouth and pool on the smooth wood floor. Her vision blurred slightly, but she was determined to show no further weakness. She allowed herself a glance at Murakami-kun, and hoped he was feeling ashamed. He deserved to be, in her opinion.

Hiroyuki smiled up at Motoko, a brave and potentially-harmful reaction, all things considered. "Well then... whoever you are, I'm guessing a relative of Sakurazaki-san?" he asked, regarding Setsuna. "What I came to accomplish was to prove that the best of the naginata could beat the best of kendo in all of Mahora... Unless I have the wrong d?j?. And as for the comment of drunken baffoon, it's quite comical, and slightly accurate, but I don't drink. However, I tend to get sugar highs." He pulled a lolipop from his sleeve and placed it in his mouth. His tone dropped from happy yet he retained his grin. "And I don't know who you are and I don't have to care, but to ridicule and shame someone like kohai-Sakurazaki was not my plan. In fact anyone can play by the rules, but I came here to see how well the Kendo fight outside the box!"

At this, Seno muttered, "He wants to fight outside the box, I can take him out back and let me and Kazue have a round at him..."

Unhearing of this, Hiroyuki tossed away the already-finished sucker. "And it is you!" he said, pointing at Motoko, "who shames this excellent fighter by treating her as if she could not defeat someone four years her senior! I may have been holding back but there was never a moment when I thought she couldn't have taken me out. Perhaps it is not I who lack faith in myself or opponents. I'm proud to have fought Setsuna Sakurazaki, a name I will remember!"

He turned to setsuna in time to catch the glance from her. He looked her in the eye, approached the kendo girl, grabbed her by the forearm and raised it into the air. "The winner, via disqualification of challenger Hiroyuki Murakami: Setsuna Sakurazaki!" Hiroyuki shouted, a shout that rang through the dojo. There was some scattered applause and more than a little murmuring.

He turned and whispered to Setsuna, "You've won this time, you earned it through your toughness. And remember, don't ever let someone tell you that you can't do something. Fight for what you love, and _never ever give up your happiness_. Oh and by the way, you're the winner; so that kiss from Miss Konoe is yours," he finished up with a wink.

Setsuna didn't respond when Hiroyuki turned his attention back to her, though she did manage to make and retain eye contact with him. Her cheeks flushed at the mention of kissing Konoka, and she glanced quickly away. He didn't seem to be such a bad guy, when he wasn't putting on that arrogant front.

He released her arm and began to leave. Turning back to Motoko he said, "Oh, and by the way I have plenty of moral in my bank." He retreated to one of the doors and shouted out, suddenly adopting the closest thing he could to an English accent, "Ladies, gentlemen, and strange people I've just met...I wash my hands of this weirdness!" But before he could turn and open the door, he stumbled backwards over the fallen naginata, tumbling over, into, and through the door, and disappearing out of sight.

Faintly, in the distance, one could hear, _"I'm not paying for that!"_

Konoka had been seated in the stands, having graciously been offered by a group of third-years when they had noticed her exchange with Setsuna, her hands alternating between being clasped to her mouth, and held together tightly. When Motoko had spoken, the dark-haired girl had looked gratefully at the older swordswoman before rushing to Setsuna's side, reaching her just as she had slumped to the ground. "Secchan!" She cried, her voice echoing through the silence in the dojo.

"There was no need for you to 'hold back,'" Setsuna said quietly, almost angrily, for she didn't believe that he had.

She dabbed at the blood, but her arm felt like lead and so, when the attention of the room was on Hiroyuki's exit, she let her arm drop.

As Konoka approached her she wanted more than anything to reach up and slip her hand into hers, but she could hardly bring herself to even look at Kono-chan. Instead she watched idly as he took his rather messy retreat, before closing her eyes and falling face first onto the dojo floor.

* * *

**A/N:** Alright guys, it's your friendly neighborhood Chris Ganale, fresh from the battlefields of Si Shui Gate with multiple victories over Orochi's army, but sadly, no fourth weapons of Masamune Date, Xiao Qiao, and Yukimura Sanada to show for my troubles. Yeah, I've been playing too much _Warriors Orochi_ lately. But! I digress! It has been five friggen months since an update, and that's way too long. Sadly, that's just the way the game as played. The reason for this is that _Kuro Arashi_ itself has become a collaborative effort now. If you've noticed a slight change in tone/writing style from one character to the next, you're not going crazy. One of the new features of the new Kuro is that it's largely become the story of an RP now, with a handful of players (I like to call them 'actors') playing the parts of certain characters. And because of that, it's up to each and every one of us to keep things flowing, which kinda didn't happen for about a month and a half there around March. And yes, for some of you devious people out there, that means there IS an opportunity for you to get involved in the production of _Kuro Arashi_. While we're not accepting any more Chosen Hero original characters, we're looking to fill friggen _every_ canon character from _Love Hina_ and _Negima_, except, of course, Setsuna and Konoka.

Now that advertisements are over, on to storyline. As you can tell, we're diving headfirst into Mahorafest. No, we are NOT going to spend like fifty chapters on the first two days. That crap was boring as hell, and everybody knows that we want to get to Mages vs. Mars. Speaking of Mages vs. Mars, this goes back to the above "Hey, you can get in here too" statement, but I'm in the market for any characters to make cameo appearances during the event. Some of the cameo characters may go on to take part in larger storylines much later down the road, some may not. It's a crapshoot. Anyway, back to the point. _Kuro Arashi_'s Mahorafest runs concurrent to the same event in _Negima_, and we're going to try to stick to canon as much as we can. And I'll try to give play-by-play for things that may conflict with what you read in the manga, such as Setsuna's kendo performance. For this, we'll suffice to say that Negi took a lot longer to wear out and go take a nap in the nurse's office, and now Setsuna will already be there, and join him in his time travel antics that way.

Well, that's all for this chapter. Get yourselves psyched up guys, we've got more character interaction ahead, and in ten chapters or less, the epic event that is Mages vs. Mars!

**Ninja'd Note:** Hi, this is the actor for all things military and whatnot..well, mainly Lorenzo Ruiz and Fujimoto Koike. Just here to make a few changes. The thing about this collaborative effort is that sometimes, we tend to make mistakes that flies under the radar until we see it all posted. And sadly, I make the most mistakes compared to my esteemed colleagues here. Sometimes careful planning goes to waste when you've been busy and what not. Again, this was a particularly useless note, but I like to butt into the A/N section. :P


	19. Oh, So That's How It Is

**A/N:** We have no excuse for the length of time it has taken to get this chapter to the public. We at Project: Arashi can only express our sincerest apologies and ask for your patience and understanding as we craft the monumental work in progress that is _Kuro Arashi_. This chapter was beset by actor changes, poor planning, lack of effort, and the attention-drawing affairs of other projects. We hope that the length of this chapter makes up somewhat for the amount of time that it took to create, and give our assurances that the next series of chapters will _not_ take so long. As with the last several chapters, the filler material of this chapter does not come accompanied by an official soundtrack, leaving the choice of music up to the readers.

* * *

"_The first official meeting between _Kuro Arashi_ and what would become Ala Alba. You could easily sense the charge in the air given off by two such powerful groups working in cooperation."  
_- Evangeline A.K. McDowell, _'On a Wing and a Storm'_

**Chapter XVIII  
Oh, So That's How It Is**

_June 22, 2007  
__Mahora Academy Main Street  
__1017 hours, local time_

After confirming that they'd gather again at midday, the Hinata crew had promptly scattered like the shrapnel from a frag grenade. All of the tenants had split up into a number of groups and proceeded to take off for their own activities. Seno, Motoko, and Kazue made up the 'Swords Trio' and had gone off to see Setsuna's kendo club demonstration. Kitsune had wandered off alone, probably going off to see if there were any gambling events or alcohol displays, and Haiken still hadn't been seen at all, and thus those two were dubbed the 'Wandering Shinobi.' Mutsumi and Shinobu had wandered off to take in the sights, all the while the younger girl listening raptly to the magical ramblings of the Okinawan native; thus, the two were designated the 'Healers' Convention.' Sabashii, after showing up in the guise of a female, would forevermore be known as the 'Gender-Confused Nuker.' Lorenzo, all armored up and looking like he was ready to go off and blow a hole in the Covenant war machine, became known as the leader and not-so-sole member of the 'Redshirt Brigade.' Naru and Haruka, with their significant others both away in America, named themselves the 'Lonely Ladies Duet.' And that left Nealla and Kaolla, who comprised 'Club Twin.'

At this we find the Lonely Ladies Duet and Club Twin wandering down the main thoroughfare of Mahora Academy, heading in the general direction of the all-girls' middle school that Negi taught at. A number of the classes were holding various booths and activities within the school, and 3-A's specialty was a haunted house. The noise and hustle and bustle of the first day of the event made it fairly difficult to hear oneself think, almost to the point that you'd need to shout to be heard by people standing right next to you.

"So what are you two going to do until the meeting?" Haruka asked of the MolMolian girls, wandering along slowly, unphased by the sea of festivalgoers on all sides of them, the proverbial rock standing steady in the midst of a river.

"Explore the haunted house!" Kaolla scrambled away as Nealla reached for the back of her clothing, to yank her back to the group. Fingers fell short however, as Kaolla slipped her grasp, and went off on her own, leaving Nealla behind, sighing.

"I'm not actually certain." The MolMolian woman shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not used to doing much besides following Kaolla around."

Haruka glanced to the side as a mockup Warthog transport drove past on the main road, its seats and the back troop carrying compartment filled with cosplaying UNSC Marines and ODSTs. They were carrying mockups of what Nealla quickly recognized as the MFBR-42 battle rifle or the MFAR-60 assault rifle in use by MolMol's military. Of course, Kaolla would have pointed out, were she to take notice of the identical weapons, that MolMol's arsenal is, itself, identical to the human arsenal from the _Halo_ games.

"It must be hard, living that kind of life," the tea shop owner said as she watched the occupants of the Warthog wave and shake hands as they drove past.

She reached down to tighten the skirt she wore, seeming to take her time to answer the comment that Haruka had left floating.

"I.. You must understand. Why Kaolla lives a free life, I must remain vigilant in my duties as her body guard. It is somewhat fortunate, that she and I look alike. More than once, it has saved her life." What she spoke of was duty, and honor. Two things she took very seriously.

"I have served the royal family since I was small. Kaolla and I grew up together. In the beginning, the only purpose was to serve as her double. But I truly do love her as a sister. I would never see anything happen to her. So for this reason, I follow her as I do. 'hard', or not."

"That's something we all understand, I think," Naru said, smoothly sliding into the conversation. "To protect those we love, and stay true to our honor and duty, each one of us has some connection to those concepts, and that's why we all have such a deep connection with one another."

Nodding in agreement, Haruka patted the Tokyo U student on the shoulder and added, "It's one thing to live your life in unswerving determination to prevent harm from coming to Kaolla, but if you focus on protecting her physically no matter what, can that really be called living? I'm sure Kaolla would be happy if you, frankly, weren't so uptight all the time."

_A lot like Motoko's sister, come to think of it,_ Haruka thought to herself.

"Even if you say that, I can't be untrue to my duty, and my beliefs. It's one thing to simply be raised to do something, and act a certain way. But I've been playing Kaolla's double for so long, it's really all I've ever done. Even as a child I acted in her stead." She seemed a bit tense, glancing around briefly, as if suddenly reminded that the princess in question was out of her sight.

"I'm not.. uptight, really. I simply live the only way I know how," her voice trailed off.

There was a brief flash just ahead, of light over darkness, as Kaolla darted into the main entrance of the Mahora All-Girls' Middle School, the very same school that housed Negi's Class 3-A. It was obvious that the princess would be making a beeline toward said class's haunted house.

"I more really meant," Haruka clarified, "that you should try living for yourself once in a while."

Deciding that that was some good food for thought for the elder of the MolMolian girls to mull over, the tea shop matron reached into her pocket for a pack of Marlboros and her lighter, going through the ritual act of lighting up a cancer stick as she turned and headed in the direction of the massive tree in the center of the city. After a moment to wave toward Nealla, Naru turned to follow Haruka.

---

_World Tree Plaza  
__1030 hours_

The tree was essentially visible from all parts of the city-campus, growing only larger as one neared the center of the city, similar to Cinderella's castle at Disneyland: Tokyo. As they reached the plaza, Naru and Haruka stared up at the tree, towering more than a hundred meters overhead, its far-reaching branches shading much of the plaza from the slowly-growing heat.

"It's not that big a deal, Naru," Haruka deadpanned. "We've seen it before."

"Yeah, from across the city, maybe," Naru answered, staring up at the huge and majestic tree in awe. "We didn't get this close to it last time we were here. I've never seen anything this big!"

Unbeknownst to the pair from Hinata, high overhead in a clock tower featuring a commanding view of the plaza, a certain member of Negi's class kept watch over the people milling about in the plaza, a perfectly-maintained PSG-1 leaning against the ledge, and a strange palm device with two spinning balls mounted to antennae projecting from the top held in the student's hands.

She watched as a few armored men and one catgirl costumed ODST made their way to the World Tree Plaza. Their shift over, they had decided to go around and tour the area. They were stopped by little kids daring to touch Katerine's sword, but after one kid accidentally got a large cut from the sword, well...no one really wanted to be near the girl with an actual claymore. They got there, posing for pictures, before sitting down on a table and allowing themselves to cool off. Granted, all the ODST body suits they used had self cooling systems, but that didn't stop them from taking three ice cold water bottles and dumping the cold water onto their faces. Once helmets were removed, another of the group was revealed to be female; the basketball ace Yuuna Akashi from Negi's class, who was not as well known as an avid fan of the Halo series.

From across the way, after finishing his small snack, the dark knight's break was over; at least, it was for the time being. With his hours pulling closer upon him, he strutted his shoulders, dusted them off, and proceeded to walk back to the Great Tree itself.

Grinning faintly, Mazu's rosy hues behest the still thriving carnival around him on his way back, and such as it was, his small smile turned into a smirk. "Cute girls abound as well as surprising sweets. There never were so many pleasantries back at home. On my next break, I think I'll take a ride... and then have more sweet things to eat. Mmmm... I can already taste those caramel-dipped apples, now... and cotton-candy... and buns of honey... and cinnamon crumples... and..." While still walking, Mazu continued listing the many things he still wished to partake while the festival was still on.

From the radio headset Mazu wore, he would soon hear the voice of Class 3-A's resident mercenary sharpshooter, who was stationed in the clock tower overlooking the plaza, providing overwatch. "Stay focused. You have a job to do. Is your detection meter even on?"

As she asked this, Mana glanced down at her own meter, which was beeping slowly, already beginning to pick up confessions in the making. Gritting her teeth, she tucked the butt of the PSG-1 sniper rifle into her shoulder and peered down through the scope. "Hold on, cancel that. I'm picking up targets, lots of them. Do what you can to disperse and dispel, I don't want to have to start shooting."

Her scope, keyed in to react to the frequency put out by the detection meter, flashed red as she passed it over a high school couple standing at the railing surrounding the World Tree park area. "Contact at your eleven o'clock. Male in a white t-shirt, female wearing a red beret."

Mazu winced. He had forgotten that he was even wearing one of the light-framed devices next to his ear. Getting re-antiquated with his job, he gave a sigh and reached to touch his left ear.

"Your voice sounds stiff. Anyways, sure, I got my meter on. S'posed to click or ring when something happens, right? Right?" Mazu then took his detector from his pocket and looked it over with tensing oculars. "Oh, wait, hold on. Yeah, it's on." He made a swift mental note not to mention that it had actually been off. He scowled. At himself, really. He had turned it off during his break only to forget to turn it on once he was back on the clock.

When told of the approaching denizens, he simply nodded his head and refitted his fingerless gloves. "Sure thing. I'll see to it that nothing happens. I mean, y'know, I'm going to happen, but they're... yeah, you get it. I'm out." With a roll of his shoulders and a flexing of his fingers, he stepped and stepped lively, taking a slight degree of a turn to hopefully catch within his range of view the targets he had been informed to find.

It probably would not take but a moment to locate the described people. In a moment, he would be there to look over from on high across their shoulders, his face stuck in a grumpy, _'What do you think you're doing, here'_ face.

"Alright, kids, kids, kids... What. Are. You. Doing. Here. No-one's allowed here during the time of the festival. Especially kids. Unauthorized kids. You two need to vamoose." He then proceeded to make a hand motion in the guise of breaking the air and waving them away.

The young couple looked over at Mazu in terror and, well, abject confusion. And some terror was thrown in there, too. The two high schoolers started to protest, when Mana's voice would once again sound in Mazu's ear.

"_Dammit, there's too many. I'm going to have to open up."_

Mazu raised a furrowed brow in his own confusion after hearing Mana's comment. "Open up? Open wha---?"

And a second later, the loud crack of Mana's sniper rifle rang out over the plaza's ambient noise, and another young man across the plaza from Mazu was flung to the ground, shot in the head by a tranquilizer round. Pandemonium overtook the crowd at that point, screaming in terror and scattering at the sudden sniper shot.

The loud crack would catch the dark knight off guard as something he was not expecting, and giving the couple a rudimentary shove away from the plaza in a direction away from the shot as well, he glanced towards the erratic crowd before placing his forefinger to his ear, again. "What was that? Did you... please, tell me you did not do what I think you did. Was it necessary?" Mazu scowled, grimacing in that twist of lament and irritation.

Naru and Haruka both dove to ground behind the central fountain, Haruka scanning the rooftops intently for the source of the shot as Naru began drawing energy to her hands and back. "What the hell's going on?" the Tokyo U student asked. "Assassinating someone in broad daylight in the middle of a festival?"

"No idea," Haruka answered, scanning across the line of department store windows down the street. "Tamp down on your power until I find the sniper. You're glowing like a beacon to anyone who can detect magic right now. These Mahorans are our allies now, so we should at least play by their rules and minimize the risks of exposing mundanes to magic."

Nodding grudgingly, Naru powered down and reached into her pocket, pulling out her cell phone and thumbing through her contact list.

On the other side of the plaza, right near the young man who had been shot, the fireteam of four men and two women had just returned the helmets to their heads, faces cooled by the ice cold water and circulating air within their helmets before external microphones registered the shot. Lorenzo's suit, more advanced than the others no thanks to Kaolla, had a shot indicator located. Taking the initiative, he and his fireteam came upon the body of the young man who was shot.

"Spread out, stay under cover! Boomerang indicates shot was high. Scan the rooftops!" he yelled in his helmet mike. Koike had pulled out his M7, the other guy was behind a trashcan using the scope on his BR55 to scan the rooftops, the other, was panning his shotgun around. Yuuna crouched behind the central fountain, M6D Magnums in hand, helmet turning this way and that.

The crowd formed a circle around them, pointing and yelling stuff, yet scared and held back as Katerine administered first aid on the guy, and put him under cover. She would then pull off her claymore from her scabbard, and holding it one handed, pull out a folded M7 as well. Driving the blade down on the ground, she hid behind it, holding two M7s, head turning as she started to look around.

Lorenzo was busy, holding the BR55 and looking for the sniper, when a call was being patched through his cellphone, slaved to his suit's internal communications. The HUD indicate it was Naru, and after cutting off his taccom to a barely audible whisper and making sure his team's status lights were all green, accepted the call.

"Fireteam Charlie, at your service," he said, keeping a light and joyous tone in his voice as he continued to scan the rooftops.

"_Lorenzo, I'm at the World Tree and we've got a sniper situation here,"_ the angel said into her phone. _"Where are you and how fast can you get here?"_

Up on the rooftop, Mana scowled at the riot she had caused, hoping against hope that some fools, fearing that their life was about to end, wouldn't suddenly start to-

Nope, there went the detector, some fool was about to make a last-minute confession. Shouldering her rifle, she sighted in on a high school couple crouched behind a bench, and took careful aim. A moment later, her rifle cracked again, and the tranquilizer shot flew straight through the slats in the bench, taking the girl in the throat and crumpling her like a doll with its strings cut.

"_If you wouldn't mind, partner,"_ Mana coldly said into her headset, _"Stop gawking and help me stop these confessions."_

"Hold on Naru," Lorenzo said, before switching his taccom back up. "Katherine, Koike, new target, 50 meters to my 8 o'clock. Get there and secure second tranquilizer dart."

"Jawohl." "Hai." his two ODSTs said. Returning her sword to its scabbard, she made for the other victims, before being blocked by the crowd. The impatient German girl amplified the external speakers on her helmet, and yelled for them to make a way. Slowly but surely, a path opened up and both made there way around the now tranquilized girl. Koike removed the dart from her, and collected it. With the help of her boyfriend, put her on the bench and made sure she was comfortable.

Back at the main plaza, Lorenzo's suit computer was still calculating where the shot came from. "I'm in the World Tree Plaza along with the other members of Fireteam Charlie," he said to his mouthpiece, having switched back to Naru's call after ordering Koike and Katherine away. "I'm in the first attack site. They seemed to be hit by tranq darts. The girl said he was about to say something before being shot. Dunno, looked like they were a couple by her reaction right now. We're pinpointing the location soon."

Stepping out of a cafe adjacent to the World Tree Plaza, Masaru, both of his earbuds in place and the volume of his music being the reason why he hadn't noticed the commotion. "Hm. Quite the debacle occurring." He spied the massively-armored dark knight across the plaza, trying to shoo couples away from the plaza, as well as a group of people in the recognizable armor of the special forces from the _Halo_ series, and the report of a sniper's rifle told him everything he needed to know. "Ah, yes, that no-confessions-in-certain-areas job. I suppose I'll do my part, since obviously this team has no concept of subtlety." He closed his eyes, picturing a group of creatures he'd seen on internet videos recently, and began to chant, "_Ati Me Peta Babka..._"

Over by the fountain, Naru snapped her phone shut and looked toward Haruka. "Lorenzo's here with his cosplay buddies from the Unversity," she explained. "They're with the first victim, tranquilizer round, apparently about to confess before he was shot."

Haruka furrowed her brow. "This mystery sniper is trying to prevent confessions of love here..." After a moment, her head came up, then she looked over at Naru, and very seriously turned to look beyond the plaza, at the massive tree in the distance. "It's the tree. The tree is a source of vast magical power. All of us can feel that there's a huge amount of energy filling the air. It seems that the powers-that-be are worried about the potential compulsory effects of that power."

The angel scoffed. "They're sanctioning snipers to keep people from confessing at the festival?"

"We don't have time to discuss the nuances now," the older woman said. "We have to clear this plaza before it becomes any more of an incident." With that, she jumped up onto the central figure of the fountain, drew her Beretta out of a hidden holster, and fired a single shot directly up into the air. When she shouted out to the crowd, her voice was audible to everyone in the plaza, a bonus of her heroic class. "I need everyone to clear the plaza now! There's a-"

Before she could provide a good, suitable excuse that wouldn't start a greater panic, the noise of the crowd trying to flee out of the west exit of the plaza toward the university doubled in intensity, and suddenly they weren't so keen on escaping that way anymore, pushing back frantically against those behind them, creating an even more headache-inducing traffic snarl.

Up on the roof, Mana shifted the scope of her sniper rifle to see what could cause the mundane civilians to panic more than the report of her rifle, and her brow furrowed at what she saw. There, advancing up the steps from the west were a gaggle of aliens, nearly a dozen in all. Eight of them were squat, meter-tall creatures that wore breathing masks attached to a pressurized tank of some kind that made up most of their height. The other three were all massive, eight-foot-tall apelike creatures wearing some kind of metallic armor over most of their bodies; two of these aliens wore blue armor and each carried a boxy pistol-like weapon with two curved blades mounted to the front end, and the last wore more ornate-looking burnished gold-colored armor and was carrying a huge, two-handed weapon that looked like some form of grenade launcher with an obscenely-large undermounted blade that reached from the barrel of the weapon back beyond the rear.

"Contact, contact!" Yuuna shouted. "We've got..." She paused for a moment, utterly and genuinely surprised at seeing real-live Covenant, but shook her head, grinning beneath her helmet, and finished her thought. "Covenant lance! Three Bravo-Kilos and eight confetti makers!"

"What the..." Mana muttered to herself. "What are the likes of those doing here?" She watched as the eight smaller aliens hobbled their way up the steps, followed at a leisurely pace by the three big ones, who seemed content to harass and terrify anyone they passed. "Wait, I sense magic..." Her eyes flared as she stared at them, an inner light glowing in her eyes as she analyzed the new enemies. "...I see. How very clever, Najou-san." She tapped her headset. "Mazushida, new contacts coming up the steps from the west. See the Halo cosplayers all around you? Let them handle them. Our cover-story just walked up."

Haruka, also, was watching the new arrivals make their entrance, and smiled, realizing immediately what was going on. She yelled out to the crowd, "The Mahora Military Enthusiasts' Club, the Robotics Club, and Bungie Studios are bringing you a live showcase in promotion of the upcoming title _Halo 3_! Please clear the plaza so that the actors have plenty of room to perform for you, and enjoy the show!"

That turned things around almost immediately. The screaming died down, replaced by cheering and callouts as the crowd hastily cleared out of the plaza, camping out just beyond the concrete ring of the plaza proper. Haruka stepped down from the fountain and joined Naru in moving out of the plaza. With the crowd thinning out, the advancing aliens caught sight of the squad from Fireteam Charlie immediately, and the golden-armored alien pointed a meaty paw at the cosplayers and roared menacingly. The other aliens aimed their weapons immediately, and a rain of green energy bolts and glowing orange metal spikes soon fell toward the Fireteam Charlie positions.

Well, this was amusing. Lorenzo had seen Haruka fire the Beretta, and was about to berate her when it registered what was happening. The two other Fireteam Charlie recruits were cowering in fear. But Katerine, Koike, and Yuuna had taken up positions behind more solid things. The ODST with the shotgun hopped into the pool that was the fountain, and took a shot with his M90 CAWS at the nearest grunt. Blown back by the apparent shotgun blast, it squirted luminous blue blood from its wounds and it reeled back. That just opened up a whole host of possibilities for both sides. Taking cover from behind her sword, Katerine leaned to the side and fired both her SMGs, sending a grunt backwards and dead, while Koike supported her by distracting the brute nearest her. Following suit, Yuuna went prone and crawled to the nearest curve of the fountain, where a double-tap from her pistols drew sparks from one of the brutes.

"Kill em all!" Lorenzo said, as he took an airsoft grenade towards the grunts. They scattered, but most of them were injured. The other ODST finished them off with quick semi-auto fire from his BR55. The Brutes left, the team focused their firepower on them. But that doesn't mean they weren't taking fire themselves. The fountain was abandoned by the shotgun wielder, having been bombarded with spikes and brute shot grenades the entire time, while Lorenzo was running around the fountain. Katerine had abandoned her sword and was running around.

Koike himself threw a grenade, killing the brute, while combined shotgun, BR55, Magnum, and SMG fire took down the other. As their weapons clicked empty, the ODSTs furiously reloaded their weapons. The Brute chieftain, devoid of allies, or surrounded by dying ones, let out a ear deafening roar. Taking it's brute shot it started to thunder towards Koike, who shot at it to no avail. Just before Koike was cut down the middle by a downstroke with the brute shot's bayonet, he was shoved aside by Katerine who stopped the brute shot's downward force with her claymore, buckling to a kneeling position due to the force of the blow.

She smiled at the brute, thereby issuing a challenge to it. Within seconds, they were up and at it. The Brute was enraged, but unlike other brutes, he still managed to keep his fighting sense. His fur was a little lighter, and was completely gray in some areas, like his feet, hands, and head. He was an older and wiser brute. And he was driving Katerine around the fountain. Magically created, it was made for show, and fighting against Katerine, who was parrying the brute shot's blade holding the claymore in both hands, he didn't really mean to kill the crowd. But still. He swiped, and she ducked a little too late, blowing her helmet clean off, and exposing the girl's head. The crowd, which had been holding on to their breath, now understood why a cat tail was sticking from the ODST's back. Some started to clap, while others cheered her or the brute on.

An errant swipe again, but this time,she dodged it completely, and slashed his stomach. He bent forward, as Katerine slid forward, using the weight of her sword to get her clear, before getting up and now pressing on her attack, making the brute go on the defensive. With each parry, she was starting to be a handful, before a chance strike wedged her sword into the brute shot. Nearly cleaving it in half, a massive punch threw the girl up in the air and she landed in a heap near the fountain. A gasp went through the crowd, initially for the well being of the girl. The brute tossed his now worthless Brute Shot to the side, roaring, issuing a challenge at the others. Lorenzo and his men aimed at the thing, before it started to recoil from the effects of being shot.

But it wasn't Lorenzo, or any of the others doing so. Running back into the fight, a small trickle of blood now nothing but a smear on her cheek, Katerine held her folded SMG like a pistol, clutching a grenade in the other hand. The Brute leapt into the air, and Katerine went into a feet first slide. They missed each other by inches. Chucking the grenade right where the brute was bound to slam its fist down. And sure enough, it had turned and slammed it on the pavement, Katerine leaping straight up at that second, and kicked the primed grenade deep into the bandoleer full of brute shot ammunition, before kicking the stunned brute in the face and diving towards the brute shot and sword.

The grenade exploded, as reddish blood and the explosion destroyed and set off the brute shot grenades and weakened the sole remaining brute. Going back to its animalistic lunge stance, it roared, finally fully berserking. Katerine was ready. Swinging her sword, the centrifugal motion freed the brute shot from it and impacted flat side first into the brute, which didn't seem to daze it. Getting low and down, as the brute raised it's arms skywards in another bashing attack, she drove the claymore clean through its heart, killing it.

Sliding out with flair, once the sword was clear, the brute started to fall forward. Turning the grip so the blade was behind her, she lunged upwards, swiping the sword past the brute's neck, using her exceptional strength to cut through the hide and thick neck, letting herself twirl once, turning the sword once more to have the sword handled normally, before landing in an attack stance as the body fell on a squishy 'thump'.

For a moment, the square was silent as she flicked her two handed sword, or was it? As she handled the long sword as if it was a one handed weapon. Nevertheless, with the blood gone from the blade and her sword sheathed, in a grim display of barbarianism, she took the severed head by its large canines, and waved it in the air, where people started to applause, which then turned thunderously loud.

---

_Chao Bao Zi  
__1222 hours_

Parked at the edge of the large open field behind Mahora All-Girls' Academy, the mobile restaurant Chao Bao Zi was operating at full capacity, with customers lined up around the figurative block to get a taste of the legendary culinary experience of the best homemade food anywhere in Mahora. And with the hour of 12:30 rapidly approaching, a few additional people would be arriving at the restaurant, making use of the age-old knowledge that the best place for one to hide is in plain sight.

In the meantime, Seno, Motoko, and Kazue were seated around a long table, one of a number of which that had been set up in the grass for people to eat their food at, a large plate filled with chicken teriyaki over fried rice sitting on the table before them.

"You know," Seno said, chewing on a piece of chicken and a clump of rice and vegetables, "this has got to be the best teriyaki I've ever had. These girls really know how to cook."

"I agree," Motoko said with a nod, her table manners far better than those of her husband. "The quality of this food is on par with Shinobu's cooking. I have no doubts that if she were to attend Mahora, she could easily find employment working at this restaurant."

A few familiar, but unknown to the Kuro crew, faces were in the area, such as a certain blonde girl napping at a nearby table, who was being closely watched by the green-haired Chao Bao Zi server. Standing in the line to get food were the bell-adorned redhead, the shy librarian, and the blank-expressioned librarian. Aside from those, though, most of the two groups had yet to arrive.

Masaru wandered the grounds, arriving from where he had created the ruckus to cover the problem earlier. He was dressed in a Mahora male uniform, and he was looking over several cards where he sat. In front of him was a _Magic the Gathering_ Fireball spell, an _Avatar the Last Airbender_ Omashu Dodgeball attack, a Spirit of Fire from the _Shaman King_ game, and Negate Attack from _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ He also was apparently looking at various tarot cards and printed out pictures of scenes and attacks from anime, and other sources of media, including Halo.

As he gazed over the cards, shots, and other media, including several guidebooks, it seemed as if he was trying to memorize the images. He seemed to have been concentrating on the entirety of closing his eyes and drawing the images in his head after studying them. He appeared to have not been paying attention to anything else going on at all. He was lost in his own little world.

Hiroyuki grinned his casual grin, chewed his gum, and remained silent as he knelt down behind Masaru. He loomed like a dark cloud over the underclassman, peeking over Masaru's shoulder to glance at the cards he. As usual this boy, was lost in thought as Hiro had noticed many times before. Kohai Nanjou, always so serious. _What's he thinking about?_ thought the lucky Mahoran. Finally getting bored with the younger boy, Hiroyuki concluded that he'd attempt conversation with the boy.

"Oi! Kohai, you can stare at those cards forever but they're not gonna change, nothing interesting is gonna happen," he said rather ostentatiously. "What? You waitin' for 'em to come to life?" he asked jokingly, plopping down to sit next to Masaru. "I mean, if that's the case then at least pick some cooler material. Don't get me wrong, most of your choices are fine. But others are, not so fine. You don't even have 'Dark Magic Attack' here.." Hiroyuki chuckled as he gazed over the collected material.

There was a definite pause as he listened to the other young man talk. Masaru wasn't antisocial so much as he just was always taught unless he had something important to say, words were a waste of time. Still, it would be impolite to remain silent, and his father had raised him to be polite, and a gentleman, despite his being rather brusque. He turned his head towards the chattery fellow, and adjusted his glasses with his middle finger.

"Each individual card I have selected has the unique property of being useful in a variable situation, and each one also has little to no prerequisites involved. Dark Magic Attack is indeed a powerful ability, but its requirement of almost a specific deck makes its usefulness variable. Negate Attack is useful in several deck structures. Fireball is a classic burn, and suffers from no diminishing returns. What you see is what you get here, and it is only as weak or as strong as you have mana to burn. The Spirit of Fire, that's just a personal preference. I am somewhat of an Asakura Hao fan, you see."

It sounded as if he was having a conversation, but he was so polite and formal about it. He was still ever so serious, though he hadn't seemed bothered by Hiroyuki's presence either. He just acted like he did because that's how he was. He really only smiled genuinely around his girlfriend.

_Interesting, but not surprising, coming from Kohai Nanjou,_ Hiroyuki thought to himself. He nodded and brushed some fallen leaves off his _Onion Magician!?_ trademark jacket, he noticed something he didn't like to notice during conversations: extreme seriousness. Hiroyuki chuckled once more and shook his head, retrieving a pork bun from a Chao Bao Zi take-out box he purchased minutes before. The young man took a healthy chomp out of it and grinned before returning his attention to the underclassman.

"Personal preference huh? So, is it personal preference to act so serious all the time? So formal. The politeness is quite refreshing but it's not like we've never met. Sure I've never had many interactions with you, much less a conversation. But don't be so dull. Tell ya what, you can call me by my name... Trust me, I had enough people call me Murakami-san for one day. And I'll call you by yours eh Masaru-san? Ever heard of relaxation?"

Nanao had made her way to Chao Bao Zi after fighting through crowds of people milling around, people trying to snag her attention after the parade, and the ruckus caused by the events at the tree. She gave a shake of her head as she settled next to Masaru with thud of her body into the nearest chair, un-shouldering her guitar in the same movement, and settling it between her booted feet. She'd traded in her corset for a gray short-sleeved shirt that bore the words 'Bad Girl' on it, with ripped gloves that went from her fingers to almost her shoulders, just before the sleeves started.

She was still hyped from her performance, and you could tell, though she half collapsed against Masaru. "Maaaaan. I'm starving. Ma~sa~ru. Buy me lunch." She batted large eyes at the glasses wearing man, her head resting against his shoulder, as she plucked one of the cards from in front of him, studying it, without really even seeing it. But that wasn't surprising, she tended to zone out a lot.

Masaru smiled gently at the girl as she came into sight. He turned his attention to the both of them fairly evenly. One had to know how to split one's focus, especially when one was trained in the fine art of closing deals. Masaru truly wished he could let the other young man know exactly why he was the way he was, but explaining yourself was meaningless. You are you. That is what he had been taught, and he had found it to be true.

"This is simply the way I am. If I were to just try to be some way different, I would be lying to myself. You must understand, the most important thing in this world is to be who you are, to claim your name, and to claim your soul. Without that, it leaves us nothing but empty, just masks over a void, trying to interact with the world. How many people lose themselves in a thousandfold false faces, just to make others happy? I am not so selfish as to believe I can pretend to be what I am not and make another smile. I am simply me. If I am not true to that, then I am less than a man."

The youth turned in his seat then, and faced the other young man. Masaru's face was calm, and he had that same serious look as always, but past that, there was more to his face. He had feelings, and it was obvious that was so, but something held him back. No, that wasn't right. He wasn't held back, he was focused. Perhaps it was that focus that made him seem unusual. Unlike so many his age, he knew what he wanted in life. He had goals set, thoughts aside, and he believed in working hard for them.

"Hiroyuki-san. I do not mind being informal, if that is what makes you most comfortable. I'm not a person who insists on pushing his way of life on others, but I am serious because I am a serious person. I admit, I have my frivolities, too... There are times I do waste time. We all have flaws, and we all have things that make us strong. In the Nanjou house, I learned from my father early on that if you want to succeed at anything, you must keep your goals in mind and pursue them without fail, without compromise, analyze everything and take responsibility. But, I was also taught you must open your heart to the people who work for you, and those around you, and you must also make sure you have one thing to balance you."

Again, he adjusted his glasses on his nose as they began to slip down, and he kept his eyes on the more excitable fellow across from his gaze.

"But I was also taught if you open your heart easily to too many people, you will also make them dependent on your strength instead of learning for themselves. Depending on others is fine, but it must be cyclical, not parasitic. A handful of people will come to understand you, respect you, and care for you for who YOU are. The rest, the rest just want to see if they can use you, or shake you, or make you react. They are those who are unhappy with themselves and do not know who they really are, so they seek to find this answer by attaching themselves to others. I simply do not wish to be one of those kinds of people. Does that answer your question about my demeanor? I am as human as you, I am just human in a different way."

Of course, he then turned to Nanao and smiled, his voice softened some as he spoke, and reached out to squeeze her shoulder lightly. "In just a moment, dear. Give me a few more moments to imprint all this on my memory so I have some things to think about, and then I'll get you whatever you want."

Setsuna approached the restaurant, walking a few paces behind Ojou-sama for the best view. Her pace quickened the closer they got to Chao Bao Zi, the delicious aroma wafting over in her direction. Her stomach grumbled. Frowning, she gave it a pat. She hadn't realized she was that hungry. She walked past Seno, Motoko and Kazue on her way to the counter, giving them a bow of greeting as she did so. Joining the line, she gave Asuna a nudge.

"It smells great, doesn't it?" she said, looking up the queue to gauge how long she'd be waiting for.

Without really thinking, she grabbed at Konoka's hand to pull her closer into the line. She stood there a moment, looking from her hand to Konoka's, her cheeks becoming more red with every passing second. Then she let go, spun around, and faced the counter again. Clearing her throat, she asked casually over her shoulder, "What are you going to get, Ojou-sama?"

A few tables down from Masaru, Nanao, and Hiroyuki, the blonde-haired girl in the Lolita dress had awoken, and focused her sharp hearing on the conversation between the almost-stoic boy and the wild child spearman. A small grin came to her as she overheard Masaru's comments concerning the risks of causing others to depend on oneself. "Well-learned, child of the summoners," she whispered to herself. "Now if only we could get the boya to learn that." She glanced up as the green-haired server passed, and called out, "Chachamaru."

The called girl halted immediately, stacks of plates two feet high held in both hands, and turned to the blonde girl, bowing partially, the plates not wavering an inch. "Yes, Master?" she asked in a flat monotone.

"It's almost time for the boya's little meeting. Take your break in the next five minutes."

"Yes, Master," the green-haired girl said, and returned to her work.

Hiroyuki was impressed, this kid was much more mature than most students his age. What Hiroyuki was not, was surprised. Hiroyuki was a well-informed person, his informants were reliable, and what Hiroyuki didn't know, he found out. He had know for a while about Masaru's upbringing, and how prestigious the family he came from was. Hiroyuki ran his free hand through his spike red hair, tracing down to his ponytail, listening intently to Masaru until he was finished. "I know where you're coming from man, and I enjoy seeing original people, behaving the way they want. I can't stand being chained down by society and what _they_ think is acceptable. You're right, our names are our own and it's our duty to allow our spirits to soar beyond the boundaries that were placed there by lesser people," the wild young-man said arrogantly, turning what Masaru had said to match his own liking.

Finishing off his pork bun, the crazy spear-user licked his finger tips before reaching into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a lollipop, unwrapped it and place it in his mouth. He smiled as he sucked on it and retrieved another sealed sucker. He held it in Masaru's direction. "Here, take it, it's good, it's new and it's flavor almost never disappears," He said outstretching it closer to Masaru. "You're an alright guy Masaru-san, I would've never thought we had even a small thing in common. But hell, we even share ideals. Never give up, pursue your goals, and don't let the rules of others keep you from your dreams. Show the world your soul is free and not imprisoned." He chuckled to himself at his own little speech, even though it paled in comparison to Masaru's. "Perhaps we share this ideal because we are kinsmen. My main father-figure was my uncle and he's more of a friend than a role-model. So, you had the unfair advantage of someone teaching you ideals, whereas I came up with them on my own. But yeah, that answers my question pretty good, despite it was answered in such a profoundly philosophical manner," Hiroyuki stated matter-of-factly and with half a laugh.

Masaru accepted the candy as it came, and he sighed, as he set it down. He wouldn't have it now. He looked idly at Hiroyuki, and there was a moment where it seemed he mused over something. Masaru listened to him speak, listened to what he had to say, and just nodded as he finished.

"You have more depth than you let on. You keep a lot of it beneath an exterior that would make most people think you didn't think, and that you were just another foolish thrill-seeker. My nature opposes yours. I put my more focused face forward and keep my softer face hidden. My father, he is a serious man, and hard to see at times. He has never failed to be there when I asked, but he does not take a lot of time with me. I understand why. He wants me to form my own beliefs, not just mirror his."

Again, the young man adjusted his glasses, and he looked about at the crowds gathered. It was always so noisy when Mahorafest came around, but in a way, it was a release of all of the pent up energy of students. Masaru had fun studying, so he had never really thought of Mahorafest as anything but part of the entire school experience. Vacations, events, it was a time honored tradition, and he understood this. Still, it was rude to ignore one's conversation partner, and he looked back once more to Hiroyuki.

"I was once told as long as you know who you really are, and who your friends are, then there is no such thing as fear. As long as you take responsibility for your own actions, and your own mistakes, and acknowledge you are flawed, then you will have no limits; you can only continue to improve. No matter what you say, what mask you present, that it is what you feel that is most important. How the world sees you is not important. It is how you see you that matters most. As long as you know the truth, what the others think they know is only just..another mask."

He reached over then to squeeze Nanao's shoulder, and nodded to his conversation partner. "I need to get Nanao something, and the line is long. But you know, if there's somewhere you'd like to go to a think someday, a place where there is a great deal of peace, there is a Shinto shrine in Araya that has gathered a great amount of spiritual activity over the course of events that happened many years ago. That place, it's the best place to go if you really want to learn about yourself, I think. It's peaceful there, and holds many old secrets. If you'll excuse me.."

He stood then, nodded, and took his place in the line, not even seeming bothered at how long it was.

Hiroyuki gazed directly at Masaru's eyes as he said what he had to say. _Damn, this kid really does think a lot, but it gets him somewhere,_ the wild boy remarked in his mind. Hiro listened to Masaru's words carefully and intently. The boy's intelligence and perception brought a smile to the spearman's face.

He nodded when Masaru was finished and waved slightly to him as he walked off. A little after he left, Hiroyuki began laughing so hard he almost swallowed his lollipop. This guy Masaru was great, very few people could see through Hiroyuki's crazy demeanor, and even less could see the focused and mature young man inside the wild boy. Hiroyuki shook his head. _Shi-Shin-shinto shrine!!!?? Where the hell did that come from? I mean, sure it's been a while since my last shrine visit...but that just isn't how I find peace. Through excitement and thrill is how I become truly calm._ Hiro ran these thoughts through his mind before an Idea suddenly popped into his head.

_OK, Masaru, I've got your number. I'll relax your way and go to the shrine...if you'll relax my way._ As Hiroyuki thought this he reached once again and pulled out a flier he had picked up earlier. He retrieved the advertisement paper with the word "BUDOKAI" written across the top. He grinned and retrieved a pen and wrote down the following: "_Okay, okay, you think you can analyze my mindset? Then how 'bout a little switcheroo? I'll relax your way Masaru-san and go to the shrine tomorrow IF you relax my way. How's that sound? Enter the Mahora Budokai tournament, fight your brains out, I'll be watching ^-^ p.s. I'll only go if you can at least pass the preliminaries._"

He left the piece of paper in Masaru's seat, stood up and left in the direction of the Chao Bao Zi. He scanned the crowded areas, listened to the incoherent chattering of the students and tourists, and smelled the fresh food-scented air. He loved Mahorafest, he loved Mahora, his home. Getting back to scanning the crowded areas he noticed two familiar female faces that he had seen not a couple hours prior near the middle of the line. He grinned. _I guess I should make good on an apology, don't wanna ruin my reputation._ He quickened his pace, walking up the side of the line before allowing his presence to be known by the two. "Oi! Sakurazaki-san! Konoe-san!" he called out not six feet away from the pair.

Setsuna turned her head at the sound of Hiroyuki's voice. "Oh boy," she muttered under her breath, glancing at Konoka. She watched as he drew closer, a carefully bored expression on her face. "What can I do for you, Hiro-kun?"

The wild-child laughed. "Hiro-kun? Getting familiar are we?" he asked in his joking way. He scratched his head and gave a small bow to the Shinmei student and the brown-haired girl next to her. "Well, Secchan. You don't need to do anything for me. But let me do something for you...Aaaaand your friend Miss Konoe here!" cheerfully exclaimed the Mahoran native.

Setsuna stared at him a moment, the corner of her mouth twitching. "Hardly." She then bowed back at him politely- a quick, short bow- before moving somewhat closer to Konoka. At least he was addressing her nicely...and, that said... "Please stop calling me Secchan." She stared at him again, unwavering. "At most I'll accept Setsuna-san." That said, she listened as he apologized, though she did not believe him to be particularly sincere.

_She doesn't like me does she?_ pondered the spear-wielder as he laughed at Setsuna's reluctant smile and acceptance. _She's tough, I can see it on her face and eyes. I like that._ Hiroyuki was caught off-guard by her insisting to call her by her full name, especially since she herself referred to him as Hiro-kun. But his recent thought along with her comment conjured an idea for Setsuna's nickname. His mind made him grin before returning back to reality.

"You took real good care of me earlier, I didn't think girls your age had such fire and passion, especially in the heat of battle. I want to both thank and apologise to you Setsuna-san. The thanks is for providing a challenge that lived up to your reputation. And I'd like to apologize if I went overboard in any way during the battle or before." His eyes remained serious and mature while he spoke those words with his constant smile. Did the man ever frown? "So I noticed you two over here in line and I believe the best way to apologize at the moment is to buy you two lunch, and I won't take no for an answer!"

"Yes, thank you. That would be nice."

"Excellent. Please don't be so hostile and withdrawn. I'd like to leave this morning's unpleasantness behind us and start anew, and this, I believe is the best way for me to atone for my actions. That or turn back time, which is much more difficult I assure you."

And with that he smiled the most friendly smile he could muster, before beginning to search his pockets for something. "So uh, what would you like Miss Konoe?" he asked, retrieving his wallet. He waited for her answer as he looked over his money. Confident he had enough money, he nodded, grinned, and turned back to the girls. "And what would you like Tsundere-san?" he asked while trying hard to sound professional and withholding his rising urge to laugh.

Setsuna stood still as he spoke, not even moving to sweep her hair from her eyes. She felt her stomach tighten with hunger and hoped the line would move more quickly, but didn't allow herself the luxury of squirming. Self-discipline is a must in kendo, especially when you don't want someone to anticipate your next move. Or when you don't want to show too much of yourself, in this case.

She gave him another half-hearted smile when he asked her not to be so hostile. It wasn't that she wanted to seem that way...it was just...

And then he said it. Called her 'Tsundere-san'. All her self-control went out the window as her cheeks heated with embarrassment. Her palms felt sweaty in her newly formed fists. She stood there a moment after hearing it, heat radiating from her cheeks. Then she smiled, drained the blood from her head, and looked directly at Hiroyuki. "That's Tsundere-sama, thank you," she said lightly, and for the first time spoke to him with a hint of humor in her voice.

Konoka watched the exchange between the other two amusedly, tapping a foot on the ground to the tune of the music that ony she could hear. She wasn't crazy, she just had that song.. what was it? The caramelldansen, stuck in her head all day.

When Setsuna dryly informed Hiro-kun to call her 'Tsundere-sama', the brown haired girl giggled. Stepping in between her Secchan and the boy, she looked between them for a moment before asking thoughtfully, "If Secchan is Tsundere-sama, could I be Yandere-sama?" Not noticing any looks she received from either party, Konoka bit her lip thoughtfully. "Although.. I'm pretty sure I'd have to go insane for that to be true.. and I don't know if I could do that." She giggled a little before looking over at the menu. "I'll have the pork bun, please," she said to the taller boy.

Hiroyuki let his contained laughter go. "I knew I could bring some humor outta you Tsundere-sama," said the wild spearman through laughs. "Very well, Tsundere-sama it is then," he said in a mock regal voice, followed by an exaggerated bow before turning to regard Konoka and her words. The brown-haired girl's comment brought an even bigger smile and chuckle from the red-haired youth. "If you wish to be called yandere-sama, that is completely up to you. However I think you're still just Deredere-sama!"

_Setsuna Sakurazaki, Konoka Kone...how adorable a couple, _the energetic youth thought to himself. "So be it, Deredere-sama. Your wish is my command, how many pork buns would you like? Would you like anything else? I assure you that my apology has no limit, and I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you two," he said with another exagerated bow. "Now, which is the seme and which is the uke?" he whispered to himself with his usual grin. "Oh! how rude of me! I never got your order Tsundere-sama."

Setsuna eyed Konoka warily, but did not join in or interrupt her, even though she wanted to. That wouldn't be respectful to her Ojou-sama. She blushed at the mention of semes and ukes, her sharp hearing picking up the words, but made no reply other than to say, "A bowl of udon fish soup, please," before looking the other way. They were hardly a couple, how could he ask such a thing?!

"Right away miss!" Hiroyuki replied in the mock regal voice from earlier. He enjoyed stirring up trouble and situations like these, made life fun and not boring. Oh he was sincere about his apology, but he had a tendency to start trouble right after he apologized. And Hiroyuki had even more fun when Anime seemed a lot like life, or rather, when life seemed alot like anime. But since real, genuine anime events were few and far between he did what he could to do his own part. _Hmmmm...Setsuna definitely seems more like the seme because she's defensive of Konoka and is more masculine..but if she is the seme then she is one shy and easily embarrassed one. At the same time, Konoka seemed a lot like an uke but seems a lot more open-minded and less shy than most ukes... What a dilemma.. So are they like, Se-ukes? or perhaps Sekes?_

Hiroyuki fought a mental battle with himself over the thought. He worked it over in his mind over and over before verbaly discussing with himself. "But the one is unaware of the other's feelings and is more of a friend than a lover. So not a couple but forbidden love? Hmmm, I better write this down, and think about it later. It seems like an over-used topic though with such shows like _Kannazuki no Miko_ and _Strawberry Panic!_ not to mention it constantly being used as an additional element. It might not be so secret in most of those shows, but it is in some." Hiroyuki chattered with himself when suddenly something caused him to gasp. Right after he balled one hand into a fist and brought it down into his open palmed hand. "It's the exact same minor theme from _OnionMagician!?_ Haha! Awesome!" He began laughing to himself with a most satisfied smile on his face as the line began to move up again bringing them closer to the counter.

Setsuna watched Hiroyuki's puzzled face as he battled with his thoughts with mild curiosity. He certainly was a strange young man, she'd give him that. Her face went back to that alarming shade of hot pink as his ideas became voiced, and it took a lot of self control to stop from interrupting him and telling him quite forcefully to shut up. He was talking about shows she'd seen a lot of...interesting...artwork for, and well knew who he was thinking about now. She gave his shoulder a small, but strong, tap with her index finger. "Close your mouth and concentrate on buying the food, Hiro-kun. We're almost at the counter now."

"Hmmm now that I actually think about it, isn't the names of those characters Setsuka and Konata?" he asked himself, still in a battle against himself. He felt someone poke him but barely noticed it was Setsuna. He smiled and shook his head at her statement. "I know where we are in the line Setsuna-san, but if I close my mouth then how can I order for you?" he asked rhetorically before lowering his voice so that only she can hear. "Don't worry, I won't tell.." he said with a wink and placing his index finger to his lips. Then the wild-child added, "Good shows no?"

With that he turned in time to noticed that they were next in line to order. The girl working the register, medium-length black hair done up in her trademark baos, smiling pleasantly and wearing an apron bearing the name of the restaurant, was none other than Chao Bao Zi's proprietor herself, Chao Lingshen. Knowing that Setsuna and Konoka were with Hiroyuki, she gave them a tip of her head and said, "Good afternoon, Sakurazaki-san, Konoe-san." She then shifted her attention back to Hiroyuki. "May I help you?"

Hiroyuki smiled as he began retrieving his wallet. "I'll be ordering for these young blossoms of Mahora, one'll have a pork bun, and the other'll have a udon fish soup... any drinks? Uh they didn't say, tea'll be fine I'm sure."

The Chinese girl barely glanced back over her shoulder, but Satsuki was already hard at work putting the order together. Her smile ever-present, she rang up the order on her register, and then said, "Okay, a pork bun, udon fish soup, and two teas. Nothing for yourself, sir?"

"Oh, no, I've already eaten. I'm merely buying these two lovely ladies lunch."

Chao nodded. "Very well, then. That comes to 577 yen."

Hiroyuki fished out a number of bills equivalent to 580 yen and handed them to her. "Okay, here you are miss, keep the change and have a good day."

Bowing her head in gratitude, Chao sorted the bills into her cash drawer, then accepted the tray with the order as Satsuki passed it to her, then handed it off to Hiroyuki. "Please enjoy your meal and thank you for choosing Chao Bao Zi. Come back and visit us; we'll be open all three days, except for the final day's event."

Hiroyuki took the tray and headed out of line to the seating area, then turned to Setsuna and Konoka and handed the tray to the swordswoman. "And thus concludes my service to thee o' young beauties of the grandest city that is Mahora." The spearman bowed politely. "The apology has been carried out... If Tsundere-sama or Deredere-sama requires my assistance in the future, do not hesitate to call on me. However, until then, I bid thee adieu." Hiroyuki bowed once more, then turned and headed off in a random direction, murmuring to himself, "Hmmph..Setsuka and Konota indeed."

Holding the tray of food that held all three of their lunches, Asuna stood by with Nodoka and Yue, waiting for Setsuna and Konoka to get out of the line with their food, and away from that weird guy who talked too much and too loud. It was all Asuna could do not to spawn her harisen and give him a few good whacks to the head. As the two Kyoto natives came toward them, Asuna grinned and nodded her head at them, unable to wave. "Come on, guys, I saw some of those people we're going to meet over at a table over there," she said, then immediately turned and headed in that direction. She looked toward Setsuna, then nodded toward the table, where Seno and Kazue were fighting over a piece of chicken. "That guy there trying to stab that girl in the face, that's your cousin, right?"

Setsuna found herself to be in an almost constant state of red now, and so tried to look as normal as possible. She ignored Hiro's comments with such ease it almost seemed like she had indeed not heard him at all. Grateful their food was close at hand, she smiled lightly and looked mildly interested, and took the tray with enthusiasm as their food was served.

Bowing, she thanked Hiro for the food and watched as he walked away.

She smiled upon seeing Asuna, and they walked over to join her and their other friends. She followed Asuna's look, and sighed, almost laughing but embarrassed too. "Thankfully there's no blood relation. That's my brother-in-law."

Masaru came back to the table where his girlfriend waited for him with various delightful things, and he gave the poster a curious look before deciding he should pick it up, which of course, he did. As he looked over the writing and the paper itself, he couldn't help but chuckle. _So that's how it's to be hmm?_ Masaru mused for a moment. It wasn't a bad idea. He wasn't fond of conflict for its own sake, but one couldn't test one's battle skills without a conflict to be had. And since it wasn't to his knowledge a life and death contest, it might not be so bad. He shrugged and figured he'd enter somehow. He'd have to go to wherever it was one went to register, but it wasn't so troublesome. "I wonder why he wants to see me fight. He might be curious if I even can..I suppose I can show a few of my skills."

Nanao dug into the tray of goodies placed down with the careless abandon of a teenage girl who never gained an ounce. All of the dancing she did on stage made sure that she kept her figure.

"Well, it depends. I mean, he could just want to see what you're capable. He could be gauging you. Or he could be humiliating you, _'Kohai'_," the word was said with affection, and she grinned. "I'm tempted to join in, but I can't fight worth a damn." A grin, before she finally turned her attention to the new folks that had wandered up.

_Lot of people.. I wonder what all this is about. No one ever tells me a damn thing._ Her glances over the newcomers were inquisitive to say the least.

More of the appointed people were beginning to arrive now. A quartet of figures approached through the crowd, headed for the two tables that many of the designated people were gathered around. The smallest of the figures was obviously Negi, his staff thrown over his back, talking animatedly with the three with him. The second was another boy who looked to be about the same age as Negi, sporting messy black hair, whose every mannerism and action screamed 'fighter'. Walking behind the two boys were the two greatest melee combatants of Class 3-A, a tan-skinned Chinese girl with her blonde hair done up in two ponytails, and a tall girl with a single long tail of her light brown hair trailing down to her waist.

Negi led his little group to the large table, capable of seating up to twenty, that Seno, Motoko, and Kazue had claimed. Just as they arrived, Mutsumi and Shinobu also appeared on the other side of the table. Having expected the lines for food at Chao Bao Zi would be labyrinthine, the two healers had picked up yakitori sticks on their way to the regionally-famous traveling restaurant.

The boy mage smiled at the two healers and bowed politely, then looked at the gathered five and said, "Well, it seems most of us are arriving here on time. Allow me to make introductions." He gestured to the spikey-haired youth on his right. Now that he was closer, two dog-like ears could be seen poking out of his hair. "This is Inugami Kotaro-kun. Though, in order to be allowed to remain here at the school until the next term, he poses as the younger brother of one of my students, Murakami Natsumi-san."

Kotaro gave the gathered Kuro members a thumbs-up and a wild grin. "Heard you guys beat the hell out of a bunch of the mage teachers," he said. "Think I could fight your best sometime?"

"Knowing Sabashii, I wouldn't doubt the guy'd take you up on that challenge," Seno said. "Name's Seno Nakakami, Halo sniper extraordinaire and all-around face-beater."

"Ara, where is Sabashii, anyway?" Mutsumi asked. "I haven't seen him all day."

"He's disguised himself as a female student," Motoko answered. "He said he had some things to look into. I'm not sure if he'll be coming."

"I _did_ call him about an hour ago and left him a voice mail about the meeting," Seno said, feeding a scoop of fried rice and marinated chicken into his mouth. "So it's on him if he checks his voice mail within the next three years."

Patiently waiting for the three to finish, Negi next held his hand toward the Chinese girl. "This is Master Ku Fei. Captain of the Chinese Martial Arts Club and my teacher in the arts."

Planting her fists against each other before her, Ku Fei bowed toward the group. "Swordsmen of the Shinmeiryu, your reputation before you. I like test my skills against you one day, aru," she said, smiling.

Motoko smiled back and bowed her head in return. "You honor us with your praise, master of the fist," Motoko answered. "I am Motoko Nakakami, and I would be honored to participate in a test of skill."

Negi smiled, thinking that this was certainly going very smoothly. He had been slightly worried that the Kuro group might hold some lingering grudge against those of Mahora, but it seemed he had been quite mistaken, which pleased him. He last gestured to the tall girl whose slit-eyed gaze reminded the Kuro crew of their resident boozer. "And this is Nagase Kaede-san."

She bowed her head to the swords-couple. "Sessha is honored to meet the current samurai of the Nakakami and Aoyama clans, de gozaru. From my home province, many are the stories of your clans' noble deeds." As she stood again to her full height, even with Seno were the swordsman standing upright, she looked toward Kazue, and gave her a single inclination of her head, a nod of respect and recognition from one kunoichi to another.

The sound an oncoming vehicle filled the area, as a black Troop Transport Warthog came into view. Jumping from the main roads, many people dove out of the way while the driver, an ODST, manipulated the gears and wheel to have it stop in a perfect, well, parallel parking position near the tables, far enough to allow people to walk through, but close enough to make a few people jump for cover. As an older, non-uniformed woman undid the five-point harness restraining her on to the passenger seat, two very shaken people, one uniformed and another, an auburn-haired girl who looked wide eyed, gripped onto the sides of the semi-bucket seats they sat on in the back.

"I've seen worse driving," Haruka commented, as she took the pack of smokes she had left in her pocket and pulled one out. The ODST, now identified as Lorenzo due to his nameplate, took out some tactical looking butane torch lighter and lighted Haruka's cigarette, before the two grabbed the handholds over their seats, Lorenzo having already unbuckled his seat, and jumped down to the ground.

"Interesting vehicle. Although I've never seen it before," the tea shop proprietor noted, as she met Lorenzo in the front of the vehicle, starting to form the eventual crowd that was staring at the TTW.

"It's called a Troop Transport Warthog," Lorenzo said, finally removing his helmet. "It was supposed to be in _Halo 2_ but was cut out. The guys here in Mahora made a few of these. This one though is the commander's version. Well, so they tell me, after repainting it black with dark blue trim. It's actually their experimental rally car version. They tell me it's modeled after the Bowler Wildcat."

One thing about the TTW, painted in Lorenzo's colors of Black/Dark Grey and Dark Blue, it had on the sides his crest: a golden shield with a white downward pointed sword flanked by wings, the symbol of the Valkyrie in Halo. The frame was basically that of a rally car's. Light, spacey, yet very strong, using the Bowler Wildcat's hybrid 5.0 liter TVR V8 engine, 300 bHP. It had multi-surface/multi-condition rally tires meant for light trucks, while the suspension and 4 wheel steering was controlled by a central, shock proof computer located on the dash. The rollbars were of strong tubular steel, encased in aluminum mockups to make it look like a real TTW, foam was placed inside the empty space between the cosmetic Aluminum and the Steel roll bar.

The TTW was actually meant to be one of the competitors in the on-going HMMWV replacement process. Unfortunately, with Japanese Arms Manufacturing laws, the motorheads in Mahora gave the prototype away to the Military Enthusiasts, and with a little planning and redesign, evolved the fully armured vehicle into the rally inspired TTW. Nevertheless, the other two passengers had started to come down. One, the original driver of the truck, was shaken. He had seen the car through many test tracks, but never driven a 4 wheel steering vehicle in a manner that made it drift corners, granted, the thing was rebuilt as a rally car for rally raids.

Naru jumped over the rollcage, before collapsing into one knee. The ODST that had sat opposite her, in the driver's side seats, was on all fours. Both were slowly getting through the shock, as Lorenzo and Haruka nonchalantly walked over to their respective comrades and helped them up.

Cursing a steady stream that belied her angelic roots, Naru stood up with Haruka's help, and turned a glare to Lorenzo filled with the fury of hellfire and brimstone itself. It could be debated whether her shaking hands made her image more or less frightful. She rose her left hand with one finger raised as though to make a declaratory statement, started to say something, paused, went through two more false starts, then shook her head and stalked over to the table the others were sitting at, dropping down into a chair next to Motoko and nonchalantly plucking a random piece of chicken from the plate on the table.

Negi, sitting in the seat directly left of Naru, was understandably shaken by the palpable anger emanating from the woman, and shifted his seat slightly to the left. Kaede, in the seat to his left, gave the boy a reassuring smile and pat on the head. Across from the two, Ku Fei and Kotaro looked rather oblivious, and were in fact debating who was the better martial artist: Jackie Chan or Jet Li.

At this point, Setsuna, Konoka, Asuna, Yue, and Nodoka arrived and found seats at the table. Seno, who had managed to hold his concentration on his chopstick duel with his ninja spy during Lorenzo's wild arrival, now looked away to see all the newcomers. "Wow, we've got a hell of a crowd here," he mused to himself. "Wonder if we'll be able to discuss all things magic without some bystanders overhearing."

Kazue took this time to strike, quickly raising her chopsticks into the air and slamming them down into Seno's hand, point first. She snatched up the bowl with her free hand and promptly began to stuff her face with chicken, watching her adversary carefully, ready to scramble away if he should turn his attention back on her. Not quite able to talk with her throat full of poultry, the ninja remained quiet as new additions began to appear. However, she did nod at the newcomers as she swallowed, acknowledging them with a smile while her green eyes warily regarded Seno with caution.

Nealla had broken away from the women earlier, and had been wandering ever since. Their words had shaken her just slightly, though she did her best to hide it. When she finally got in range of Chao Bao Zi, she was glancing around for her charge, her expression as flat as always.

To be only 16, she was incredibly serious almost all the time.

"I'm not too late, am I?" she addressed to Seno when she finally managed to grab a seat, a slight frown on her face.

The swordsman turned his glance from the newcomers to Nealla, answering, "Nah, it hasn't started ye-OW! SON OF A BITCH!" Instinct jerked his injured hand back to him, and he glared at the offending ninja. If he had any of his weapons with him, he'd be whacking her in the damn head for that.

Immediately, Shinobu raised her free hand and, not missing a beat from her talk with Nodoka, twisted magical energy between her fingers and directed the healing energy to undo the minor damage to Seno's hand, and continued on her discussion like it was nothing. Beside the white mage, Mutsumi smiled and applauded the younger woman's skill.

At about that time, Kaolla made her appearance, sailing over the head of the crowd and coming down on the head of the Warthog driver, landing with just enough force to drop his face into the puddle of vomit. She then used the man's helmet as a springboard to vault into the driver's seat, power up the vehicle, and careen off into the crowds.

As the sound of screeching tires vanished, the blonde girl in the lolita dress stood from her table, motioning the green-haired server to join her. The pair approached the gathering group, and as they neared the table, the Warthog came plowing back toward the group, driving directly toward the girl.

"Master..." the server warned.

"I see it, Chachamaru," the blonde answered, her stride not faltering. Just before the vehicle would have splattered her, she gestured with her right hand, and the Warthog went flipping up into the air. Halfway through its aerial rotation, Kaolla dropped out of the driver's seat and landed sitting cross-legged on the table.

The blonde watched calmly as the Warthog came crashing back down, rolling across its side into the crowds, its mass and speed sending no less than seven people sailing away after impacts from the vehicle.

"Killimanjaro, Master," Chachamaru reported tonelessly.

Grinning, the blonde turned away from the carnage and headed to the table, calling back, "Save that film, Chachamaru, and record all those medals. Must have been at least five," over her shoulder.

As the blonde and the green-haired server joined the groups at the table, Negi looked at them in genuine surprise. "M-Master? What are you doing here?"

The girl gave him a poisonous look. "I'm considered a part of your little group, aren't I, boya?" she asked condescendingly. "Besides that, it's impossible to miss such a concentration of power. So even if I wasn't invited to this little get-together, I'm inviting myself."

Negi paled, gulped, then nodded and turned his attention back to the gathered groups. "W-Well, this meeting was mostly called as an introductory get-together," he began. "Actually, since it was called at Otohime-san's request, I'll let her take over."

The Okinawan native smiled at Negi's gesture and stood up, looking around the table. "The reason I asked for this meeting is so that our two groups can get to know each other. We'll be working together a lot in the future. I think most of us have been introduced to one another already, so once the important matters have been wrapped up, we'll let those who don't know everyone go around and make introductions."

Mutsumi clapped her hands together, then turned to her side and placed a hand on Shinobu's shoulder. "Now, Shinobu, if you'd be so kind, would you please scan the surrounding crowd? You should find four of our new allies currently in the area."

Nodding, Shinobu closed her eyes and lowered her head toward the table. For a moment, there was silence, then the white mage's head came up and her eyes snapped open, having faded to the tell-tale lavender color of her special ability. Standing up in her seat to get a better view, she turned in a slow circle, taking in the crowd. Immediately, she caught two white auras situated at a table nearby. "There," she said, pointing to the forms of Masaru and Nanao. "Those two from the parade."

In a rare act of kindness, the blonde girl turned to the green-haired server and said, "Retrieve them, Chachamaru."

"Yes, Master," the server answered, bowed, then headed off into the crowd.

Continuing her circuit, Shinobu found another white aura beginning to leave the area. "Over there, heading toward the trolley station," she called out, pointing to the retreating form of Hiroyuki.

The student in question swaggered his way into the trolley, whistling an anime tune obnoxiously loud. As the wild child moved to board the nearest leaving car, Hiroyuki sneezed; He wiped his nose and shook his head "Hmmm....Someone must be talkin' about me behind my back," the spearman stated to himself, reinforcing the superstition. Hiro outstretched his arms and yawned more obnoxiously & louder than his earlier whistling and turned around to scan the past crowd for anyone looking like they're saying something about him. Suddenly Hiroyuki felt a vibration at his own waist, accompanied by the song from one of his favorite shows.

_Mi-Mi-Mikururun,_

_Mikurun-run,_

_Mi-Mi-Mikururun,_

_Mikurun!!!_

Rather than answer his phone immediately, Hiro danced a lil' to the tune before answering it with a sunny "Moshi-Moshi?"

The voice from the other side was that of a young underclassman. "_Sempai! Sempai! I've got the info on those strange people you mentioned earlier!"_ exclaimed the the other voice.

Hiro merely nodded. "Excellent, thanks a bunch... Oh and don't call me sempai, it's kinda annoying 00-kun." Staying on the phone, the young man scratched his chin and headed back in the direction of the Chao Bao Zi, then continued, "I really should be getting my costume together for the cosplay thingy, but it's currently more important to know about these people so lay it on me 00-kun."

The younger voice cleared itself. "_Ahem, I'm sorry Hiro-kun it's how I was raised. But yeah, apparently most of the teachers in Mahora know about this group of unusuals. It was well guarded but hacking into school systems is my specialty as you know Hiro-kun. Apparently though, all there was were their profiles, pictures, and their group name. But nothing on what they do specifically, their group name is the _Kuro Arashi_."_

At this Hiro huffed, and a small grin crossed his face. "The Black Storm? Heh, doesn't sound like a charity group, what're they doing here?" questioned the wild man.

"I'm not sure, they seem to be careful with their important info...I'm sorry Hiro-kun."

Hiroyuki laughed at this. "You've done enough Takaki, don't get caught, and stop following me around," Hiro said with his voice becoming louder at the last part before hanging up. He then turned in time to notice a cardboard box scurrying off in the opposite direction, but no one seemed to notice but Hiro. "Damn it Snake..."

"That's three," Mutsumi praised. "There should be one more in the immediate area."

Catching the special emphasis on the word immediate, Shinobu turned to scan the nearer area. Immediately, she noticed a glaring white aura, not one of their own, standing at their very table. She pointed down to the blonde. "And you."

The blonde shook her head as though clearing her hearing, then stared at Shinobu incredulously. "_What_?"

Negi's group, needless to say, was caught completely off-guard by the proclamation. The boy mage himself had turned as white as the auras of the Chosen, Ku Fei's face was screwed up in confusion, Kaede maintained her serene expression, Kotaro didn't seem to know what was going on, Nodoka and Yue merely watched silently. Asuna literally fell out of her seat laughing, rolling on the ground and holding her stomach. "Are you serious?" she asked between guffaws. "Eva-chan is some kind of hero? A goody-goody?"

The blonde girl's eye twitched, but instead of diving on the redhead, she merely turned and gave her a strong kick to the side, before turning her attention back to Mutsumi and Shinobu. "You two have got to be mistaken. I am no hero. I am Maga Nosferatu, the Undying Magi, the Dark Evangel, Evangeline A. K. McDowell! I'm an evil mage, not any sort of goody-goody! I'm the final boss, not any bloody adventurer!"

Shinobu shrank back under the oppressive dark aura of the girl, but Mutsumi met her stare without flinching. "You can disagree and argue all you like, but you have been Chosen by the Planet. You cannot escape your destiny, no more than you can escape your vampiric blood."

Evangeline's expression darkened further, as though she were about to reach across the table and tear out Mutsumi's throat, but she abruptly turned away and crossed her arms, huffing like a spoiled child who hadn't gotten her way. "Whatever," she muttered. "I can be 'Chosen' all you like, but this fate and destiny nonsense is just that. I've got my free will, and I refuse to take any part in this heroic destiny of yours."

Mutsumi smiled airily, then placed a reassuring hand on Shinobu's shoulder. "Of course," she said. "Even one such as I cannot affect free will."

By then, Chachamaru had reached Masaru and Nanao's table, and bowed politely to them. "My Master has requested that you join us at our table," she said simply, gesturing to the gathered group around the large table.

"Huh-wha?" Nanao wore an expression of confusion when Chachamaru approached, before standing, grabbing her platter with one hand and Masaru with the other. "We're being summoned." And she dragged the younger boy with her, trying to angle a dumpling into her mouth while balancing her plate, drink, and boyfriend.

Lorenzo put his armored gauntlet down and stared at Mutsumi with a shocked expression. He moved his lips for a bit before gaining the ability to speak again. "You're sure she's with us? She's one of the most hunted people outside Mahora," he said, taking care to keep his voice down. "Do you know how much of a dossier she's got? Old secret Papal Bulls, declarations from the Anglican Church. Reports of her vile ways, all neatly organized into box after box after box chronicling each decade of her vampiric history. Do you know how much we owe the Vatican for being able to keep the originals of the Papal Bulls? The Queen is just loaning those declarations to us because we have better storage facilities. All that documented proof of her evil deeds, and she gets a white aura?"

Mutsumi shook her head slowly in Lorenzo's direction, then shrugged slightly. "I have no control over who is Chosen and who is not; that decision rests entirely with the Planet, and I merely arbitrate that decision," she explained, then cast a glance toward Evangeline. "Though, in the past, the Planet has been known to offer these redeeming kindnesses to those who have lived for too long with poor stretches of luck."

The vampire huffed again, closing her eyes against the sunlight. "The Planet's chosen poorly, then," she snapped. "I'll not join any misfit group of wannabe adventurers playing hero in some self-styled 'destiny' of saving the world. It's utter madness."

"Madness?" Seno repeated, perking up suddenly and grinning.

Before he could say or do anything further, Motoko fixed him with a steady glare. "No."

"But-"

"I said no."

"Fine."

"This is...madness..." Lorenzo started saying, before biting into his food, keeping his head down. One thing he didn't really realize, or remember, was that he was always under observation outside his own room. Ever since his failure to keep his mission a secret, a small group of committee members, those in charge of his program, and his own commanding officers themselves, wondered if it was wise to keep him there.

Well, this was probably close to breaking point. In some far off distant control station...well actually an EWAC bird flying around, they would start to patch a call from Lorenzo's superiors. Fortunately for him, the presence of people in high numbers mean that call would have to wait.

Just then, Masaru and Nanao reached the table, and Nanao mouthed around the dumpling, "Oouantedumthing?" directed at the group in general.

Mutsumi turned then as Masaru and Nanao arrived, and gave them one of her trademark smiles. "Welcome to our little gathering, Nanjou-san, Nanao-san. Allow me to come directly to the point." At this, her expression sobered, and her voice lost its usual airy tones, reverting to absolute seriousness. "You, Nanjou-san, are already familiar with our group, but not what we do. We, that is, those of us not students of this academy, are all Chosen by the Planet. It is our destiny to save this world from a grave threat that would otherwise destroy our world."

She smiled again, once more the carefree woman that the crew was familiar with. "And the two of you bear the aura of the Chosen, which means that the two of you also share our destiny."

"Aura of the Chosen?" Nanao echoed Mutsumi, a sort of incredulous look on her face. "What does that mean, exactly, to be one of the chosen? What, we have some great interwoven fate we can't escape? Ain't there some way we can choose if we wanna be a chosen? I mean, what happens if we don't accept our fate?" She glanced toward Evangeline briefly, before turning her eyes back to Mutsumi.

"All I ever signed up for was singing. Not being some kind of 'chosen'." she frowned just slightly, her hand lacing with Masaru's, and gripping it. This wasn't the kind of information everyone learned every day, after all. This was pretty ground breaking stuff.

Masaru listened idly as the woman spoke. What an unusual bunch of people. Still, he understood this probably better than most of them did. When his father lost someone dear to him to the machinations of a man who thought himself to be a god, he'd been given the power to help stop him. When the New World Order showed up and the Crawling Chaos had attempted to destroy this world, they had stepped in again with the help of another generation of youngsters to save it from total annihilation. So it ran in his family deeper than he'd thought. To Nanao, this might be something groundbreaking. He however, he'd just been waiting for it. It seemed as if the Nanjou family was always involved in such things, whether they wanted to be or not.

"I see. Very well then, I shall take responsibility. Whether it is the Planet..Philemon..or some other great force that sees fit to let the world rest in the hands of those who have the means, I will join them without hesitation. I do not believe in 'Fate'. However, I do believe in responsibility. If a man can do a job, and he is given the means to do that job, all he must find is the will. I do not see myself as a chosen hero. Heroes are things that die and fade away. I just see myself as the next member of the Nanjou family to inherit the neverending job of protecting this resource we all live on."

He turned his head then, and adjusted his glasses, speaking to the younger girl, Evangeline, while his hand clasped Nanao's hand.

"Do not consider yourself a 'hero'. A hero is a myth, a legend, a story to keep hope in the hearts of those that do not have the means to do anything about the grim reality. A hero is something that is made by the people. But you live on this world. If it is in danger, that also affects yourself. It means that all of us have to take action because we've been told we have the ability, and that puts the responsibility on us. You probably understand. If what that man said about you is true, that means you have the wisdom and years to understand that. Heroes and Villains are just titles that people give others in order to define them. Good and Evil are just ill defined concepts. Every one has a light and a dark side, or they could not survive. In the end, it's those who would live in imbalance of those sides, take from us what we have called precious or necessary..be that love, hate, or resources to use. And we will deny them what they want."

He turned his head to Nanao and smiled then..and squeezed her hand tight.

"I understand if you don't want to do this because you feel forced. But there is always a bigger thing out there, directing us a little bit. Free will is something however, that even the worst of gods hold dear. Even Nyarlathotep, who is our Shadow, understands that WE must make the choice to embrace darkness over light, light over darkness, or find a balance of both. All the gods can do is tell us what they feel, and then it is up to us. The enemy will come whether we accept it or not. We have nothing but to fight. It will happen whether we say we want it to, or we don't. So, I will raise my sword at those who would raise it against the world I am helping to build. That is responsibility, and justice. I will accept this title, though not necessarily its meaning."

"We're priviledged to have you fighting at our side," Mutsumi said, then sighed slightly. "Though, precisely what we're fighting is a question I wouldn't begrudge you. Our foes have been quiet recently, far too quiet. I fear some nefarious plot is afoot."

Evangeline laughed bitterly, both at Masaru's words and Mutsumi's statement. "Fortify your resolve, then, and steel yourself for what is coming," she told the Okinawan native. "Take it from an evil mage; the first thing they'll strike at is your heart." She turned away then, raising a hand and beckoning Chachamaru to follow her. As she reached the farthest range of hearing from the table, considering the ambient noise of the festival, she called back over to her shoulder to Masaru, "Light and darkness are merely words applied as tools of the weak, in that you're correct. However, even if one does have the desire to leave the darkness behind, rising from the blackest depths is a task easier said, than done." And then the Dark Evangel was gone, lost in the oblivious crowds of student and visitor festivalgoers.

After a few moments of relative silence, Asuna said, "So, Eva-chan just admitted she wants to stop being so evil, right?"

Kotaro gave her a sideways look and answered, "You're pretty damn simple-minded, nee-chan."

Meanwhile, back at the Chao Bao Zi counter, the proprietor and co-owner of the wandering food stand watched the gathering carefully in between serving customers. As she smiled genially and waved goodbye to several of her classmates, she reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, using the motion to discreetly remove the small listening device she had been using to listen in on the conversation.

Pocketing the device, she looked over to her classmate and friend, truly the driving force of Chao Bao Zi. "Sat-chan, I'm going to take a break. Can you and Chachamaru handle things while I'm gone?"

The class' culinary artist looked up from her steady work, giving the Chinese girl a nod and a thumbs-up. Returning the gesture, Chao exited the rear of the tram car and stretched slightly, looking up at the sunny early afternoon sky. She let a gentle smile cross her face for a moment, before she wiped it away, reached into a pocket, and produced a cell phone. Dialing a specific number, she waited.

Once it clicked, Chao immediately said, "I have a revision to the plan to field-test the infantry droid units. I've learned of a certain group of so-called heroes who will almost certainly interfere with the plan. Deploy Unit Thirteen to take part in the Budokai preliminaries tonight. We'll determine what steps need to be taken once we've witnessed their power."

That done, Chao clicked the phone closed, then returned it to her pocket. "Two more days," she whispered to herself. "Just two more days..."

---

_June 21, 2007 (local)  
__Kingdom of MolMol, Royal Palace Throne Room  
__1536 hours, local time_

MolMol was burning.

A thick cloud of smoke billowed up from the west wing of the palace, casting a red pall over the island nation. The screams of civilians filled the air, matched and drowned by the guttural battle cries of the inhuman creatures that sacked the city, gleeful slaughter wrought in a devastating, surprise assault. The attacking forces, humanoid figures clad in banded plate armor with bipedal lizards as mounts, massive quadrupedal turtle-like creatures with cannons attached to their shells, and small wyverns in the skies, marched through the city, methodically and mercilessly killing anything that stood in their path.

A white-robed MolMolian soldier let out a choking gasp as the blade of one of the raiders burst through his chest, staining the immaculate white clothing a deep, crimson red. The soldier clutched weakly at the offending weapon, the battle rifle in his other hand falling to the ground with a clatter, splashing into a mixture of blood and water. Wordlessly, the armored humanoid ripped its blade free of the man's chest, sending the dying soldier crumpling into a heap atop his battle rifle.

"Fall back, fall back!" another soldier shouted to the precious few MolMolian soldiers still attempting to hold the palace courtyard, waving his left arm behind him as he backpedalled toward the throne room, his battle rifle barking out its three-round bursts. It was a hopeless gesture, he knew, as he watched the bullets bounce harmlessly off the shield wall of the advancing enemy.

A flicker of movement to the side caught his attention, and he looked over just in time to see a toothy maw descending upon him, barely giving him enough time to scream before his life ended in the snap of the lizard mount's jaws.

Panic set in as the four remaining soldiers holding the courtyard realized that they had been surrounded and cut off from the rest of their forces. Standing back-to-back in a cross formation, the four soldiers stared down the lengths of their rifles at the enemies of their kingdom, dozens of them. Silence and stillness surrounded them for a moment, as their foes basked in the moment of complete dominance. The four glanced one to another and, in turn, each nodded.

Battle rifles were cast down, ceremonial guard robes likewise tossed to the bloody, dusty ground. As one, the four soldiers drew their scimitars, steeling themselves for this last clash. The sole woman amongst them screamed out, "For the King!" And then the quartet charged out, screaming defiantly against the hordes of darkness, casting the die and letting destiny judge the determination of their fate.

Within the throne room, King Su stood atop the throne platform, clad in his ceremonial plate armor, armed with the Su family ancestral longsword, watching and listening to the throne room shudder as the massive lizards outside attempted to batter down the barricaded doors. To either side of the king stood Amalla and Lamba, likewise armed and prepared for battle. A crimson streak of blood painted the left side of Amalla's face; blood of a would-be assassin that she'd dispatched on her way to the throne room.

The room shuddered again as the enemy continued their assault, loosing dust from the rafters to drift down to the floor. The thirty soldiers holding the barred door strained against the assault of the living battering rams outside. "Hold steady!" "Put your backs into it!" "Push, men!"

As the battering continued, another clatter drew the royal family's attention to one of the upper-level stairwells, where two soldiers were making their way down the stairs. Or at least, one of them was; the other, dying or probably already dead, rolled down the stairs, a dead weight. The other was clutching his left arm, that sleeve stained red with blood. "Sire!" the soldier called, barely-contained panic tinging the edge of his voice. "The palace is fallen! We cannot hold against their onslaught!"

The king regarded the messenger for several long moments, then closed his eyes and slowly nodded his head. "So much death," he said quietly. "What can mere men do against such reckless hate?" The throne room shuddered again. The door was beginning to splinter under the continual assault.

Amalla stepped forward, passing her thin-bladed longsword to her left hand, laying her right upon her father's armored shoulder. "We must ride forth, Father," she said. "Ride out and meet them."

He stared back at her with weary eyes. "For death and glory?" he asked skeptically. "I'll not ask any such sacrifice of my children."

"For MolMol," Lamba said calmly from the king's other side. "For our people."

King Su stopped, looking between his daughter and his adopted son, seeing reflected in their eyes the same determination he himself carried in his heart. He smiled and reached once to Amalla's shoulder, then to Lamba's. For the first time since this invasion had began, he felt hope. With the three of them working together, they would defeat this horde. "Let this be the hour," he told them, "when we draw swords together." Turning toward the soldiers still struggling to hold the splintering doors, he ordered, "Abandon the door! Stand ready and muster your courage!" Raising his longsword high in the air, he watched the doors fracture at the center, splintering outward, the elegant wood bowing in toward the room. "Remember this day, men, for it will be yours forever."

The soldiers cheered at their king's words, hefting their weapons toward the ceiling. The room trembled once more, the doors now nearly spent. Stepping forward out of the line of soldiers, King Su turned and looked back at his men, at Amalla and Lamba. "Fell deeds awake. Now, for wrath, now for ruin..."

All at once, the doors exploded inward, heralded by the immortal traitor, Namusan Sapou, his left hand outstretched toward the shattered throne room, dark magicks flowing around his arm. Lowering his arm, Namusan raised his crystalline sword in his other hand, then thrust it forward toward the king and his defenders. The armored humanoids at his side roared loudly and charged into the spacious throne room.

"And for the Red Moon!" the king roared in answer, and his men raised their own voices to meet his, as they charged forth to meet their foes. The King fixed his eyes solely on Namusan, ignoring the lesser foes but to slay one that stepped into his path with a brutal uppercut, flipping the black-armored creature up into the air to land brokenly on the palace floor.

The two sides met in a great, terrible clash of swords and steel, slamming into one another with the force of colliding freight trains, the results no less catastrophic. Screams of anger and cries of pain filled the throne room, blood both red and black spilling onto the polished marble floor as blades and shields crashed together. And in the middle of it all, Namusan and the King of MolMol battled ferociously, red flames and purple lightning cascading at each clash of crystalline and ancestral blades, thunder ripping through the throne room.

Dozens of enemy creatures flooded into the throne room, their steady advance slowly forcing the defenders back. Yet even as they advanced, it was over a carpet of their own fallen that they marched, the combined power of Amalla, Lamba, and the remaining soldiers exacting a heavy toll on the besieging forces. Only one in every dozen bodies wore the white livery of a palace guard, testament to the battle prowess of MolMol's best warriors. But time and the odds were working against the defenders. The edge in skill was theirs, but numbers favored the enemy. Blood exploded into the air as several mounted enemies charged into the room, the lizards kicking down several soldiers and ripping into them with merciless fury.

The palace guards continued to fight with furious abandon, demanding a steep price from their foes for each of them that fell, but as the melee continued, more were crushed underneath the weight of their enemies, before too long leaving none but Amalla, Lamba, and the King, himself. Amalla's thin longsword moved beyond the range of human vision, a mere flicker of light as she moved from one foe to the next, leaving bleeding, dying bodies in her wake. Lamba, the penultimate fencer, moved with fluid and graceful steps, his rapier deflecting aside blows from sword and spear, and answering with swift stabs that left no wounded behind, only the fallen.

Oblivious to the slaughter around them, Namusan and King Su continued to battle amidst the sea of bodies and the river of blood. Namusan brought his blade down in a brutal overhand slam, but King Su blocked the strike, sliding the immortal's cursed sword down until the two stared eye-to-eye. "With this, your failure is complete," Namusan taunted. "Your Marids have failed to protect you, and you have failed to uphold the Heaven's pact to keep me sealed."

"With your _death_, I shall uphold the pact and ensure that none of these fallen have died in vain," King Su retorted calmly, straining to maintain the blade lock.

"Fool!" Namusan bellowed. "You cannot kill me! I am immortal!"

"Father, mortal weapons won't harm him!" Amalla called out as she cleanly decapitated an enemy warrior. "The only weapons that can permanently harm him must be made of-"

The sharp bite of a blade driving through her back and stomach cut off her words with a pained shriek. Shock began to set in immediately. With wide eyes, she looked back over her shoulder to see that the blade that impaled her belonged to none other than Lamba, who stood holding the blade with a cruel expression carved out of his features. "L-Lamba....w-why...?"

"Can't have you going and revealing that secret now, dear 'sister,'" Lamba answered, smiling coldly.

King Su, his attention torn from Namusan at Amalla's outcry, turned back to witness this event, and bellowed, "Lamba! What have you done!?"

Slowly, almost lazily, Lamba placed his free hand on Amalla's shoulder and shoved her off of his blade. She hit the ground with a wet thud, gasping aloud as she grasped futilely at the hole in her stomach, blood pooling beneath her. Lamba then focused his attention on the king. "Weak old fool," he snarled. "How fall your powers have fallen, that you could not even sense this coming."

From where she laid amidst the pile of dead, Amalla watched, darkness creeping in around the edges of her vision, as Namusan neatly disarmed the distracted king with a flourish of his crystalline blade and then, with no preamble, drove the gleaming blade through the king's chest.

The king coughed as the blade punctured his lung, blood explosively erupting from his mouth. Falling to his knees, King Su looked up toward the throne platform, to the quartet of thrones for himself, Lamba, Amalla, and Kaolla. The pain of the sword being removed from his back was a dull throbbing sensation to him as he fixed his eyes upon the throne normally occupied by his youngest child. As Namusan raised his blade high in the air, King Su closed his eyes, one word passing through his mind: _Kaolla..._

"And thus, falls House Su," Namusan pronounced.

---

_June 22, 2007 (local)  
__Future Force Warrior Exhibit, University Engineering Showcase Hall, Mahora Academy  
__1750 hours, local time_

Where was Lorenzo, at this current time? Well, still disgraced, but somewhat feeling the need to continue his mission, he had stepped aside and was quickly just finding a desolate and barely used area. When the call was patched in. It was quick, precise, and he was disturbed. Those talking to him had expressed their dissatisfaction, and even contempt, for a junior agent to have stumbled across something greater than they expected. It was above his pay grade, they said, responding on his inquiries on why he was to be pulled from the project.

Regardless, he decided he might as well join the rest, as he neared the Fireteam Charlie booth. But from there, it was almost impossible to get back out. Or even remove his costume. Setting his drones out again, the magic and electrical reserves were replenished with a change of batteries and cartridges, before they flew off to join Seno and gang in the Tournament. He set them on an orbiting manner around the tournament proper, relying instead on long range cameras to record the action. He sat down, and exchanged the powerpack in his suit's cooling unit.

"Sir," a familiar voice whispered in his ear, well, through the speakers. It was Katerine, or Katherine. He didn't really understood the difference. "Welcome back. You had one more hour until the end of your break."

"It's fine," he said, getting back up. And started to handle the team. Their teacher adviser didn't do much, which led them to quickly use him as a substitute. "What's the next demonstration?"

---

_June 22, 2007 (local)  
__Tatsumiya Shrine, Mahora Academy, Japan  
__1752 hours, local time_

Word had spread far across the festival that all of the low-fare martial arts tournaments were being bought up by a mysterious group, and organized into a singular tournament, billed as the return of the legendary martial arts budokai. And so, from all parts of the festival far and wide, prospective competitors, interested spectators, and those with nothing better to do with their time made their way to the Tatsumiya Shrine in order to witness or take part in the tournament preliminaries.

The interested parties, naturally, included the entirety of the Kuro crew, who arrived not as a single unit, but in groups of twos, threes, or fours. Seno, Motoko, and Kazue arrived alongside Konoka, Setsuna, and Asuna, having lent their skills to assist the girls in their confession patrol prior to the event.

"So what do you guys think?" Asuna asked of the three Kuro group. "You going to get involved in this tournament?"

Motoko shook her head. "As much as it would help to improve and sharpen my skills, I do not think that it would be proper for me to be seen participating in a tournament for monetary value."

Seno nodded in agreement. "I just don't like fighting in structured tournament things, you know? I reserve my competitiveness for my XBox, and besides, I heard somewhere that there was a ban on the use of bladed weapons in this fight, so that puts me right out. How about you, Setsuna?"

Setsuna smiled slightly. "The 'no bladed weapons' thing is a bit of a let down," she said slowly, "But I wouldn't really mind joining in." She flashed Seno a grin. "It could be fun!" she added, her eyebrows raised. She smiled again. "Oh, I almost forgot!"

Rustling about in her pocket she produced two red wristbands, each one embroidered with the Mahora emblem. "Here," she said, handing one to Motoko and the other to Seno. She blushed then. Old habits die hard.

Seno and Motoko exchanged looks as they accepted the wristbands from Setsuna, then Motoko, knowing how much that her adopted sister looked up to her husband, nudged Seno discreetly in the back.

The swordsman shot her a look, then immediately raised his right arm and slid the wristband onto his wrist, the top of the Mahora emblem pointed up toward his shoulder. He then patted his sister-in-law on the shoulder. Setsuna wasn't acquainted enough with them to fully know their interests so they were a small gift, yes, but he had to show the proper appreciation. "School emblem, huh?" he asked, turning his arm slightly, hand still on her shoulder, to inspect the insignia. "Thanks, Set, these are pretty cool." He followed this up with one of his usual grins (rather Nagi-esque, in fact), and another pat on the shoulder.

Smiling, Motoko likewise donned her gifted wristband, though on her left arm, as opposed to Seno's right. They tended to do a lot of things that way, yin and yang, all that. "Since you will participate, I will refrain from joining, that way you won't need to feel like you're..." She paused, fumbling for the proper phrase.

"Playing second fiddle..." Seno helpfully supplied.

"Yes, that..." Motoko coughed, then finished her thought. "To any performance I would display." Smiling, she stepped forward and gave Setsuna a light hug. "So represent Shinmeiryu well, Setsuna."

Seno, looking around while his wife and sister-in-law were talking, spotted the rest of the Kuro crew approaching. Evangeline, true to her word, was having nothing to do with them; though he'd spotted her signing up for the tournament; and he couldn't yet recognize Masaru and Nanao, the two new kids, as easily as he could his longer-known allies. He raised a hand and waved them over.

"-find that other guy that Shinobu pointed out?" Naru was asking as they walked up to join the quintet already there.

"He was Hiroyuki-kun, right?" Nanao asked off-hand. "I had one of my adoring fans tell him to meet us here. So he should be around shortly."

"That, and didn't he hand you that flier for the tournament, Masaru?" Haruka asked, pointing to the piece of paper held in the young man's hands. "He should be here to watch the tournament, at the very least."

"News of new prospects?" Seno asked as the groups merged.

Mutsumi nodded. "The one young man we missed at the meeting earlier should meet us here soon, and then there's still the matter of the last one that we should find here. I'm having trouble pinning him down."

"Huh." Seno worked his jaw for a moment in confusion, then shrugged. "So! Anybody going to jump into this?" He jerked a thumb toward the crowd of applicants. "Besides the new guy."

"So long as he doesn't try to practice..." Motoko threw in off-hand. Seno waited, trying really hard not to smirk or grin.

Almost on cue, the one and only Hiroyuki Murakami arrived on location at the Tatsumiya Shrine. Though not visible in the crowd, Hiroyuki paced back and forth on the closest roof-top. He sighed as he crouched atop the shingled roof. "Pfft, where's friggen Masaru-san?" Hiro whined. "He needs to participate or I'll just have to join up and prove him wrong myself. Though I've already beat up one minor today... Hmm, this kinda stuff is probably bad for my image." As he contemplated this, he spotted more than one familiar face. Hiro's grin slithered once more across his face, he returned to his feet and leaped to the ground below, startling a few spectators. But they were none of his concern, Hiroyuki most likely didn't even notice. He had bigger fish to fry.

Within a matter of minutes Hiro was in the vicinity of the Kuro crew, unaware anyone would come looking for him. He approached Masaru and greeted him with a 'friendly' slap on the back. "OIIIIII! MASARU-KUN!" he yelled with extra energy to be more obnoxious. "So you didn't chicken out? Cool cool, I'll be watching. I hope your bite out there backs up your bark from earlier, you better make it past the preliminaries ya hear?!"

For his part, when Masaru felt himself being hit, it was almost impulse to turn around and flip the offender onto his ass. He refrained from doing so when he heard the obnoxious voice. When he moved forward from impact, he immediately readjusted his glasses where they had shifted, and turned himself to face the noisy fellow. How very much like Brown this guy was. He would have to tell his father, he might find some amusement in it.

"I do not go back on my word when I give it. However, I must admit, this has a larger turnout than I was expecting for some mercenary self-gratification dalliance between testosterone saturated fools and second-gender inferiority/superiority feminist complexes. Color me surprised."

He didn't look, or sound surprised. The same rather bland tone as always he had, probably just to annoy Hiroyuki at his lack of visible enthusiasm. In truth, he was eager to show off his skills, though with that eagerness came thoughts of caution. Where there was one strong, there was always stronger. If what he had heard was true, it would draw others with 'talents', meaning he might have to actually fight. Fighting mundanes was boring, but fighting the gifted was often dangerous.

Then Hiroyuki's eye caught someone he'd been running into all day. "Hey, hey, hey, hey Tsundere-san! You entering this thingy too?" he asked loudly whilst pushing past Masaru. "One ass-beating isn't enough for you in one day eh? I like your spunk! I'm interested in seeing your hand-to-hand skills, since we didn't get much practice this morning."

Setsuna rolled her eyes before turning to face Hiroyuki. "How nice to see you, Hiro-kun," she said dryly, placing a hand on her hip. She couldn't believe how unfortunate she was, seeing him on such a regular occasion. Her face was hot from his taunts. It would be oh so gratifying to kick his ass.

Hiroyuki grinned at the younger girl. "Easy, Tsundere-san. Save it for the field, work out all that negative energy. And maybe we'll get to see the _dere_ part of you." He snickered. "This is just a hunch but something tells me you're not liking your luck today huh?" asked the young man who knew everything about the subject. He then noticed the other two figures standing with Setsuna, Seno and Motoko. "Oi, who're these jokers Tsundere-san? I saw them earlier I think. They your parents or sumthin'?"

It was guys like this that Seno really took pleasure in knocking down a peg. But the slight touch of Motoko's hand on his arm held him back. The Shinmeiryu heiress then slowly focused her attention on Hiroyuki, allowing her aura, a relative gauge of her power level if you will, to leak out. Though, judging by the type of person he was, the knowledge of her relative level wouldn't frighten him any. "Actually, Setsuna is our sister," she informed the overly-hyper Mahoran.

Hiroyuki locked eyes with Motoko whilst not letting his grin fade away. The wild child felt the elder kendo girl's energy spreading towards him in an act of intimidation. _Who the hell do they think I am?_ thought the spearman. Hiro was not defenseless. Motoko's aura was quite impressive, albeit just a leak, so in return Hiro let his own pent up ki leak out. It wasn't enough to match the samurai woman, but it was enough to invisibly clash with hers. "Hmmm, your sister eh?" Hiro asked looking over the frames of both Seno and Motoko. "I would've never have guessed," he stated with a huff.

"You don't look like her brother, I'd say you average about 6' even in height. Which is far taller than Secchan will ever grow. Your hair is also brownish, you dress how you please, much like yours truly, and you have a focused but lost look about you. Like you know why you're here and it's important, but because of this you're missing out on crashing some bozo's skull on XBox Live Halo." Hiroyuki managed to get out in one breathe without a pause, all the while pointing at Seno from a safe distance.

"AAAAAAAAaaaaand you don't look like her sister, maybe more of like a cool aunt or sumthin' of the like. You're more believable when it comes to height but the shape and color of your eyes convince me otherwise. A shield of annoyance is just a front, you have something else in your eyes. Love, Honor, and...what's this? Vengeance? How delightfully interesting." Without missing a single beat or note, Hiroyuki switched over to Motoko. Hiro then inhaled. "Whew that was a lot, well quite a mouthful in the very least." Hiroyuki, for some odd reason decided he wasn't done yet. "Oh, and another thing that throws me off is that: From my estimations, your bust level will never be achieved by Tsundere-san."

Confident that he was finished with his analysis, and that he'd learned something interesting; Hiroyuki began to wrap it up. "Well I guess it was nice meeting and reading you oh very strange brother and sister of Tsundere-san. Perhaps we can talk politics the next time we have a discussion. Ciao." Hiro chuckled giving a quick and exaggerated bow to the pair. Hiro then spun on his heels and headed off into the crowds.

"He's not bad, that kid," Seno commented, a restraining hand on Motoko's shoulder to keep _her_ from flying off the handle. Hiroyuki didn't know Motoko that well; even with how much she'd loosened up over the past year, she only tolerated Seno discussing her...assets. "I mean, at least, in terms of reading people. Not many have picked up on my Halo antics, especially considering my gun gremlins."

"You're wearing a Halo 3 shirt..." she answered, giving her husband a sideways look.

He looked down. "Oh, so I am."

Motoko smiled despite herself. "We've been married almost a year and still I can't tell sometimes if you're doing it on purpose."

"Honestly, most times I just don't care enough to remember, really."

"Is there a no-kill rule in this tournament, or can we kill our opponents if we see fit? Some fools enjoy fighting only to kill, so I would like to know if I have that option in return. It also tells me what music I should listen to during the fight. I have trouble finding inspiring moves if I don't have the proper thematics. You understand. Also, I wish you good luck, Sakurazaki-hime. I extend my respect to someone who practices what is considered a lost art by the uninformed. One of the few remaining Samurai.."

He turned his head back to look upward at the rest, his face a mask of stoicism. He had to be a real blast at parties. Though, when he addressed Setsuna, he did give her a quiet smile, and let his eyes be just slightly warm, for a brief moment, before he resumed his usual stance. So this was how it was going to be. Good. Tension was good for the soul.

Masaru was like a breath of fresh air after enduring Hiro's unwarranted arrogance, though Setsuna felt herself lacking the right to his praise. She bowed low. "Thank you," she said solemnly, her eyes downcast. "I also wish you luck in the tournament." Raising her head, she returned a gentle smile. "I hope you enjoy yourself."

Over with the rest of the group, Naru turned at a tap on her shoulder to find Mei standing behind her. She smiled widely at her step-sister and said, "I didn't expect I'd find you here, Mei. Come to watch the tournament?"

"Actually, I'm going to enter the tournament," the younger girl answered. "My onee..." Mei paused; up until that point, she'd used the term 'onee-sama' to refer to her partner and sempai, the shadow-wielding Takane Goodman, but now that she and her real step-sister were on the same page in the magic vs. mundanes book, she felt it disrespectful to continue using that term on anyone but Naru.

"My partner wishes to discipline Negi Springfield-san for several incidents earlier in the day, so she has decided that we will enter the tournament and discipline him first-hand."

For a moment, Naru stared at her step-sister, lips pursed in thought, then she regained her smile, laid her hand on Mei's head, and discreetly cast _Holy Aura_ on her. To cover that action, she said, "It's good that you can follow your partner's lead, but sometimes Mei needs to do what she wants to, you know? Step out from beneath your partner's shadow, if you will. Either way, I wish you good luck in the tournament."

Mei's face fell slightly. "You're not entering, onee-sama?"

Naru shook her head. "No, tournaments aren't my thing. But I'll be rooting for you, so do your best, hm?"

"Okay!"

"And speaking of Negi," Haruka commented from behind Naru, nodding her head to where Negi, Kotaro, and Yue were approaching the group. "Good evening, Negi-sensei," Haruka said to the boy as he neared.

"Oh, good evening everyone," he called to the group at large as they converged. "Is everyone here for the tournament?"

"Not exactly," Haruka answered. "We're just here to watch."

"Yes, the turnout is much bigger than I expected," Negi said as the group continued to chatter on amiably. "The ten million yen top prize is certainly a surprising change of things as well."

"WHAT!?" Asuna barked over the crowd, immediately stampeding over and grabbing Negi by his collar, lifting him bodily into the air. "The prize is _how much_?"

Negi gripped her wrists in reaction to her grab, but refrained from making use of his recently-learned martial arts to break her hold. If she had hoisted him out of anger, he'd be breaking free, definitely, but there was no menace in her current attitude. "Yes, ten million yen," he repeated. "Definitely a nice prize, yes?"

Setting the boy mage down, Asuna took a moment to dust his shoulders, then turned away slightly, stroking her chin with her fingers. "I could pay off my _entire_ tuition plus room and board with that..."

"You should definitely enter, Asuna-san," Negi said, smiling encouragingly. "Who knows, you might even win."

"Yeah, seems like they're putting off starting it for someone anyway," Chamo said from his perch on Yue's shoulder. "Someone's bought out the rights to the event."

"But who would do that?" Yue asked as the ermine scampered up on top of her head, then leapt from there over onto Negi's shoulder.

"Hey, so long as the guys who are in it aren't chumps then who cares!?" Kotaro called out exuberantly, clenching a fist and grinning as he slapped Negi on the back with his free hand.

"I _am_ glad it's not scaled down, if just for you guys' sake," Yue said.

"That's right!" Kotaro exclaimed, pointing at Baka Black. "An' I'm gonna show _you_ what a battle between _men_ is all about, squirt!"

"Now, Kotaro-kun, you know you oughtn't talk to an 'oneesan' like that," a new voice said from beside the dog boy.

Kotaro yelped and jumped, then spun around to find his roommate and ersatz 'sister', Natsumi Murakami, standing behind him in a fairy costume. "Uwah!? Natsumi-neechan... What're _you_ doing here!? I didn't tell you about..."

The young drama actress appeared crestfallen. "Now I'm going to think you're not glad to see me..." she said. "I even snuck out of my club, too..."

Hiroyuki ignored everyone else, stalking Natsumi silently and nonchalantly. He crept and slid, and glided towards the fugitive drama student, trying his best to hold in his smile and laughter. Hiro sprung, seizing Natsumi by the shoulders and preceding to give the smaller and easily intimidated girl a noogie. "This is officer Hiroyuki Murakami of Mahorafest security! I've been ordered to capture the one Natsumi Murakami who is in dereliction of duty, and escort her back to the Drama Club's torture chamber," came the extremely deepened voice of Hiro.

Suffice to say, Natsumi about jumped out of her wings, grabbing Hiroyuki's arms in an unsuccessful attempt to free herself of the headlock. "Nooo, not the torture chamber!" she cried, successfully holding back her laughter in order to play the part. Little else could be expected of a member of the Drama Club.

Kotaro, unaware of who Hiroyuki was, immediately stepped forward, bringing back a fist in preparation to clean the interloper's clock. "Hey, get your hands off Natsumi-neechan, bastard!" he snarled.

"No, wait, Kotaro-kun!" Natsumi interceded, holding up her hands to halt Kotaro's progress. "It's okay. This is my cousin, Hiroyuki."

Hiroyuki laughed childishly and released the hold on his much smaller cousin, though keeping his arm resting on her head. "Bastard? I swear, kids' mouths these days are getting more foul and violent as every minute passes!" Hiroyuki spat sticking his tongue out at the dog boy. He followed up by giving a mocking snarl of his own. "So who's this loser Natsumi?" he asked his fairy cousin, thrusting his thumb at Kotaro in the 'You Fail' position. "And why's he actin' like he's family? What, you rescue him off the street and now he owes you a Wookiee life debt?"

"Umm...yeah, actually, it was kind of like that," Natsumi said, scratching the back of her head nervously.

"Oh, so this is that guy, is he?" Kotaro asked, now remembering Natsumi mentioning her cousin who also attended the academy. "AND WHO ARE YOU CALLING A LOSER!?"

"Now, now, Kotaro-kun," Natsumi said placatingly. "That's just how he is."

Before Kotaro could escalate the encounter, a feminine voice called out over the PA, "_Competitors and spectators, through the entrance please!"_

Almost immediately, the gathered crowd began to move through the gates into the Tatsumiya Shrine. Negi, at the back of the gathered group including his partners and the Kuro crew, noticed Kotaro wasn't with them, then turned to find the dog-boy, and called out, "Kotaro-kun, you're going to get left behind!"

This drew the attention of Mutsumi, who looked back, noticed Hiroyuki, and called out,  
"Hiroyuki-san, if you are not participating in the tournament, would you meet up with us inside please?"

Hiroyuki looked up over at the Okinawan native, and listened to what she had to say. When Mutsumi finished, he nodded, waving his free hand. "Sure, sure I'll be over there with you guys in a bit." He really wasn't sure what this was about but he wasn't going to pass it by. _It's odd though, I've been running into these people almost all of today. Well, luck is still on my side, this'll definitely be the most interesting Mahorafest yet. Though I better look over the info Takaki sent me earlier so as not to be at a disadvantage,_ thought the spearman, retrieving his cell phone and checking that he had all of the messages.

And then the group disappeared with the crowd into the shrine proper. Inside, the hundreds of would-be participants and spectators crowded the grounds, an excited murmur of background noise filling the air. Inside, eight forty-by-forty square raised platforms had been set up across the courtyard, facing the central stage, upon which Kazumi Asakura stood, performing master of ceremonies duties for the tournament. The air around the tournament was alive. Birds, released balloons, black ducted-fan drones, streamers, wait what? Lorenzo's black drones started their orbit. Swiveling their long range cameras about, they focused until they had a commanding view of the stage.

"_Welcome, students of Mahora, students from other schools, and anyone else who's here!" _3-A's self-proclaimed paparazzi called out. _"Welcome to the return of the Mahorafest Martial-Arts Tournament! For you all to have made it here on such short notice, well folks, that's great! The purse? Ten million yen! It's a legendary martial arts tournament folks, so be sure to give it your best; for the prize, and for honor!"_

"Huh, so Asakura-san is the emcee?" Asuna asked.

"Fancy that," Negi replied.

"Well, you have to figure, knowing her."

"_Let's start with a few words from our new sponsor to begin the competition,"_ Kazumi said, raising her hand to the side, where a new figure stood that hadn't been there before. _"The owner of Chao Bao Zi, the academy's number one restaurant, Chao Lingshen!"_

This set the crowd to buzzing once more, with many murmuring at how she was only a kid, others pointing out her intelligence level. Even Negi's group was caught off-guard by the announcement.

Clad in a traditional orange Chinese dress with yellow sleeves and a red Oriental dragon on the front, Chao smiled for the crowd and said, "The reason I bought this tournament is for one reason and one reason only..." Her voice, despite lacking any visible microphone, was amplified enough for all to hear. "Whoever it is that's strongest at this academy, I want to know it, be they of the world of light, or world of dark. That is all.

"Until twenty years ago, this tournament was a place where people from that 'other' world could show what they could do. With the advent of digital cameras and other media, however, entrants stopped using their full abilities, leading to smaller battles, smaller prizes, and smaller events overall.

"As of now, however, all that's changed. The legendary Mahora Martial Arts Budokai is hereby revived! Projectile weapons and bladed weapons are forbidden. Further, incanted spells are also forbidden. Aside from that, however, you are free to use whatever techniques you wish."

This bombshell caught even the Kuro crew's attention, shocking them as well as Negi's group. "Hey, is she supposed to be saying that stuff?" Seno asked.

"No way..." Naru muttered.

"There's some deeper plot at work here," Haruka said, eyes narrowed.

"I wouldn't be concerned," Chao said, as if directly answering the gathered group. "In this day and age, unless they've got photographic proof, no one'll believe it anyway. Electronic equipment is in place that disables all devices within the perimeter of the Tatsumiya Shrine, including cell phone cameras.

"Those of you from the world of dark, feel free to use your powers. Those of you from the world of light, all I ask is that you behold the nature of true power, and spread the word. That's all!"

Hiroyuki hadn't gone chasing after the members of the Kuro crew; he slacked behind with Natsumi's miniscule group, keeping his left arm resting on his younger cousin's cranium as they walked.

Upon getting inside the near completely full temple-turned-arena, Hiroyuki decided to split up from his current group. The wild Mahoran turned to his cousin, patting her head and ruffling her hair. He knew that Natsumi was self-concious about her hair, but he still liked it, it reminded him of his own wild-fire hair. "Kay, kay Natsumi I'm leaving you alone with your friends and walking carpets. Be a good girl and hold Chizuru-neechan's hand, alright? Stay outta trouble, I'm going over to the adult groups to discuss grown-up things. I'll see you later." He finished with a kiss to Natsumi's broad forehead, and with that he was off. He loved Natsumi as though she was his little sister, and truth be told they were the only family that each other had.

Hiroyuki began elbowing and shoving his way through the crowd. The wild child had entered his 'ignore uninteresting-people' mode and didn't seem to hear or see anyone complain, use angry words, or direct any rude gesture towards him. He continued shoving and making his way to the Kuro crew.

At long last Hiroyuki arrived at his supposed stalkers of the days' location. He quickly retrieved his phone and started viewing the info he'd received on them a little earlier. _Hmm, so this, Mutsumi Otohime, is the..guardian? So that's like the leader most likely. I'll identify the others as I see them_. "Oi, oi, oi, people who wanted to meet with yours truly. How can the great Hiroyuki be of assistance to you?"

Not far from the Kuro crew's location, they were currently under subtle surveillance. The figure was relaying both audio and video to a nearby control center, and would have seemed to stand out in the crowd. Oddly, it didn't, well technically _he_ didn't, despite that his intimidating height carried him to near 7'3". His hair was an emerald green, and flowed down his shoulders and over his eyes in bangs. He wore black-ops style combat boots, and urban camouflaged pants to match. In addition he adorned a black leather, high-collared sleeveless vest. The shady figure possessed sizable arms and muscles. Though there were still odd things about the man's appearance; his arms were symmetrical, too symmetrical, and looked as though crafted and folded out of steel. His yellow eyes emanated a golden glow, and if one were to inspect carefully, they would notice small flashes and blips going off like a mini-fireworks show. He had a single tattoo that was visible, it was simple black, with four characters on it. '#013' was all that it read. Yet the only thing that ever seem to grab attention from people was the unusual 'funny-looking' ear-pieces that he wore. They were shining silver, long, vertical and rectangular; and covered both ears seamlessly, as though they were crafted into his skull.

"I.T.S.U. 13, Itsuki Rakuso reporting in," stated the figure seemingly to himself in a base monotone voice. "Confirming that current assignment and orders are to participate in Budokai tournament and to test the abilities of the members of the _Kuro Arashi_ if they do indeed join. I do not see the value in testing these meat-bags, Chao-sama. We already know their limits as was recorded in the test trial of 143670092/A-8/I.T.S.01U.3 January 1/2552 at 0001 hours local time."

You knew it was one of those days when something strange happened to you. You knew it was one of those days more when something strange and crazy happened to you. What exactly would one call a white-haired stacked schoolgirl on one's head by that classification? Well, Hiroyuki was about to find out. With a static-fuzzing sound, a schoolgirl with pale hair and a good bit of cleavage sort of..appeared on the spearman's head. Despite her well-proportioned figure, she was also rather monstrously heavy; in fact, it felt like she weighed several tons, though the weight was distributed in such a way as to not break anyone's neck who's head she landed on. Clever, that.

"Oi, who's this kid? I don't think I remember this brat being part of the group. Is he another one of your mystical magical chosen supergeeks, or is he just tagging along for the ride of fame and fortune, like me? And those other kids. How big is this group getting? I swear."

The female Sabashii flipped rather gracefully off of the young man's head then, and popped her neck from side to side, looking a little under the weather. Whatever he..she..whatever..had been up to, it was fairly obvious that it had been rather taxing. The mana-caster hadn't ever looked this drug out, even after the fight at the Hinata.

"That was really rough on me. I never thought it would be that bad..but it has been a long time. Did I hear right? Did that slanted-eyed-ruin-the-economy-in-our-neighborhood-by-opening-stores-and-taking-money-out-the-community brat say to use MAGIC in this little tournament? That's taking a large risk..what's she up to..I wonder.."

Needless to say, Hiroyuki was indeed caught off guard by the white-haired, thin air-school girl. And he more than jumped slight when the girl came crashing down on top of his skull. She was good, only real good sneaky sneaky people good surprise him, and much less could get the possible 'assassination' on him. But this girl was unnatural, she weighed oddly a lot compared to her size, like a full grown man.

Hiro winced, it hurt but not enough for him to voice. His right eye twitched as long as she sat on him. _People'll start talking, I swear it. I've been in too much damn contact with underage girls all day...though I guess there's nothing wrong with that.._ the now weight-lifting firehead voiced in his mind.

The wild spearman held his words until the man-child-girl-thingy retreated from the perch on his head. He turned to listen to the odd and interesting creature he'd come across. This was turning into one hell of a day! "Yeah, that's what Chao-san said. Not that it makes any difference miss two-ton feather-weight. I must say though, you're the first girl today that's come on to me so forcefully!" Hiroyuki joked with a chortle. "So that's what I'm here for, to join this little charity group or somthin'? 'Ow'd'you find me eh?" he stated turning back to Mustumi. He swiftly glanced at his phone discreetly without drawing attention, just in case he forgot. "And more importantly, how did you know who I was Miss Otohime?"

"Oh, I have my ways," Mutsumi answered in that way of hers, ignoring the background buzz of the rest of the crew talking about Chao's announcement. She was focused solely on Hiroyuki now. "Well, as this amusing little event is about to begin, I'll waste no time. Destiny has chosen you, as it has chosen the rest of us, as 'heroes' if you will, whose role it will be to save the world from destruction."

Hiroyuki was indeed dumbstruck at this claim that he was all of the sudden a hero. And it took a lot to surprise him. "W-w-wait a second here now, soooo, I'm a hero? 'Hiro the Hero?' Well I was expecting a lot of strange things out of this group. But definitely not this." The spearman stated matter-of-factly. He laughed at the title but shook it off as quickly as he mustered it. "So you guys are heroes? Hero as in super hero, heroes from Fable, or the main characters in RPGs? And you're saying I'm one? That's pretty cool but you say I was chosen by destiny and the planet. Recently or since birth?" questioned the eager firehead, this was not mere luck. Hiroyuki could definitely tell that much.

Nealla, in the meantime, was speaking with Kaolla about their new additions, specifically warning the girl away from the man who called himself Hiroyuki. "Such individuals are not to be trusted or associated with except in the barest of fashions. Arrogance of that level is not to be tolerated from any such as they. Attempting to raise themselves by the humiliation of others, especially those younger, is a despicable trait which should not tolerated by anyone of your station."

Oh, she was laying into him, without ever naming a name.

"I believe that we would be better served by keeping our distance." Nealla gave a faint nod, which Kaolla tipped her head to, before turning to Seno.

"If magic is allowed, should I j..."

"NO!" a resounding shout from the entire group that called itself the Kuro Crew. To which Nealla could simply blink.

"But I..."

"No, Nealla."

"But they said...."

"No, Nealla!"

"Oh fine," She sniffled. "You always ruin my fun."

"So, you missed the big group meeting earlier," Seno was saying to Sabashii nearby. "Short note is that we allied up with boy wonder's little rabble, and we picked up..." He paused for a moment to count on his left hand. "Three, four now, new guys in our crew. Well, technically we only picked up two. One doesn't want to cooperate, and this guy over here..." He jerked a thumb over at Hiroyuki, "...makes for number three. Or four. Whatever. So, get your job done?"

"Yeah. But don't expect me to do any serious fighting anytime soon unless it's life and death. I still have some reserves, but using that type of Mana's hard on someone like me, who deals in Darkness. That, and bringing someone back from the dead that has been obliterated practically on a genetic and spiritual level isn't easy for anyone. Combine that with a mana type I haven't used in a long time, and you have a very tired me."

The girl shrugged, and once again resumed the true form; Sabashii in all his glory as it were, stood before the group, hands thrust in his pockets. His clothing had changed along with his body, to their usual black pants, red shirt, and tie..and of course, his awesome shoes.

"I never said I was gunna cooperate either." This came from Nanao, who had her arms folded across her chest, guitar slung across her back by it's strap. "But that's entirely besides the point, right?" Her tone was dry, and her expression was unamused as she stared across the entire group, before a smile lit her face as her glance crossed over Masaru. "I guess I can though. It being destiny and all."

Sabashii tipped his head over to the new arrival and raised one white eyebrow. "Huh. So you're the newest guy, huh..interesting. I don't know you, yet. Then again, nobody's put a contract out on you so since I haven't been assigned to assassinate you that's probably why. Though, technically, I'm a retired assassin..so I guess that's all moot, huh? I'm Sabashii, the resident womanizer and pervert. I also beat faces. Motoko over there is our Azumi. And Seno is our Skirata."

He watched as Masaru turned and went wordlessly down to where the fighting would soon begin, and he popped his neck from side to side, before having a seat with the rest of the group. He was being his usual flippant self, true, but he more..felt drained, than looked it. He only looked a little tired, but his aura was fluctuating badly to those with the senses to realize it.

"Call me crazy, but I have a feeling we're being watched. I don't know by what or who, but call it a feeling. You have to know that shit when you decide to kill people for fun and profit. I'll let you guys do recon. I have a way to recover, but I'd rather not use it, so I'm going to rest here."

Once Sabashii had settled himself down, Nealla reached into what seemed to be an endless bag slung over her shoulder. Well, so it wasn't that endless, and pulled out what looked like a wrapped up bag of food, offering it to the older man.

"You weren't with us for lunch, and I know how draining magic can be, so..." Her voice trailed off, and she shoved the food forward into his hands, before placing distance between them once again, clearing her throat at the speculative glances of the others. "What? I can be nice." She frowned.

Hiroyuki turned to listen to Sabashii's little introduction, to which he nodded. "Pervert huh? That's kinda cool I guess, saves me the trouble of trying to fill that space." He then turned to the samurai woman and the halo dude. "Motoko huh, you'll have to show me how you fish. And Seno is it? Odd name but it's interesting. I think I've played Halo with someone by that name before; gamertag's _Chiu Fan Hiro_. Nice to meet you all." He laughed with his cheerful smile and friendly bow.

"Chiu Fan Hiro..." Seno murmured to himself, stroking his chin as he pondered. "Sort of familiar. Probably played against him before then."

Hiroyuki's ears twitched and his spider sense was tingling. He turned, scanning the group before his eyes fell on two foreigners. "Oi, I heard my name mentioned! I'm sensing negative energy from the taller one of you! Lay off will ya, I just accepted..kinda to be in this group and all ready there are rumors going around. Kids these days I swear it again!" He turned back to Mutsumi and shrugged, "So is there some sort of legal form I have to sign or what? I don't seem to be very welcome here."

"No, no forms or anything," Mutsumi answered. "Nothing so formal. It merely is. Simple as that."

"Not all of us are heroes," Sabashii said. "I'm not. I'm just here because these guys share a common enemy with me. The enemy they're fighting to protect this world from is also an enemy I've had for quite a few years. We go way back, me and the turtle..and I have things I need to settle up with him on. But, it's always good to have backup, despite how I usually work alone."

He took what was given to him with a chuckle, and nibbled at what was there. He looked about slowly..and tipped his head to one side. To let them know the truth..no, he knew they didn't fully trust him yet, and he wasn't sure he trusted all of them. Not like that. They were getting used to magic as a whole, despite having their own skills, and his past connections made it hard for him to admit the truth anyway.

"I could probably fight in this tournament as I am now and win it without a lot of problems, except for a couple of exceptions. There's one participant in it that I'd have a lot of trouble with, who might even be stronger than I am. But I doubt he wants his presence announced by anyone but himself, so I'll let you all wonder. I bet Mutsumi knows who I mean..and I know she understands why I say what I do.." Sabashii chuckled then..and shook his head..and mused aloud for no real reason at all, not having even realized it.. "MolMolian tournaments are so much better than this.."

"They are...." Nealla's voice trailed off, as she and Kaolla exchanged a sideways glance, before turning to look at Sabashii.

"How come you know that?" This last came from Kaolla, with the almost twin girls looking over him strangely.

"Ah..I participated in one once, as an upcoming fighter..when they were open to fighters from other lands. It was when I was a lot younger..and I was under another name..so who knows..maybe they've changed since then, but I doubt it.."

He'd almost messed up on that one..it was a good thing so little was known about his past; otherwise he might have had to go into further explanation on that one. It'd have been hard to explain the real truth.

"Oh." Kaolla replied.

Nealla however, was still looking over him with skeptical eyes, a frown set upon her face. "I see." A slight sigh. "Some days, I miss home." An idle comment, not really directed at anyone, before she herself turned toward the central arena, settling back into her chair next to Kaolla.

"_Okay entrants, come forward and pick yourselves a lottery ticket!"_ Asakura called out, moving the process of the tournament preliminaries right along. _"The numbers will be used to sort you into twenty-person groups, which will then compete against each other in a battle royale!"_ A chorus of loud cheers rose up from the gathered crowd at that announcement. "_We'll be accepting new entrants up until the very last minute, so age, gender, and previous martial arts experience isn't a factor. What're you waiting for!? The main tournament begins at 8 AM sharp on the second day of the festival, so let the tournament preliminaries now begin!"_

What followed was fifteen minutes of cruel and tragic shenanigans as everyone who wished to participate in the tournament scrambled over the 160 available lottery tickets. In the end, Masaru easily secured a lottery ticket which bore the letter A, as did the extremely-tall Itsuki. Mana and Ku, who also decided to enter, had gotten tickets labeled D, while Takahata and Evangeline both secured F tickets, Asuna and Setsuna both scored D tickets, Kaede and Kotaro's tickets read E, and Negi's ticket read B, leaving him off by his lonesome in that group. Mei, also, was left by herself with a ticket that read G.

As the tickets began to dwindle, Kazumi again took the microphone. _"Once again, folks, these tournament preliminaries will be fought in groups of twenty, battle-royale style. Labeled 'A' through 'H' only two from each group will move on to the next round, leaving only sixteen participants for tomorrow's main event!"_

"Damn if that's not a good thing," Asuna said as she and Setsuna wandered toward the D group arena, the redhead holding her artifact harisen over her right shoulder. "Means we can team up and take these other clowns down, huh?"

"I'd have it no other way," Setsuna answered, smiling, a faint, almost-invisible aura of ki surrounding her.

"So, Kotaro-dono, want to help me clean house?" Kaede asked the young half-demon as they neared their group.

"Not a chance, Kaede-nee!" he called back, shaking with anticipation of the battle to come. "I'll toss you out just as soon as I would any of the rest of these bozos!"

The ninja gave a calm smile. "Well, then, I guess I'll have to stay on my side of the ring. The last thing either of us want is to be eliminated in the preliminaries."

"_The prize for the winner is ten million yen!"_ Kazumi's voice boomed, eliciting more wild cheers. _"Once the groups of twenty have been picked by lottery, that group may begin to fight!"_

Group D was the first to assemble. Mana contented herself to stand off to the side, near the edge of the arena, as Ku Fei mercilessly trampled all over everyone who came before her, exactly as was expected of the chairman of the Chinese Martial Arts Club. Even the captain of the kendo club, a self-righteous bozo that neither Mana nor Ku doubted that Setsuna could stomp a mudhole into if she so desired, was helpless before the destructive power of Ku's feet and fists.

"Goddamn, you'd think she was wearing Bracers of Suzaku," Seno muttered as he watched the dark-skinned Chinese girl clean house.

"What are those?" Motoko asked as she glanced toward Setsuna and Asuna's slowly-forming group, then turned her attention back to Group D just as Mana and Ku were pronounced as the victors.

"Epic magic item in D&D," he replied. "When activated, they give you a +20 bonus to strength, which is nothing to sneeze at. All things considered? Bracers of Suzaku are probably real. Also, that 'kendo club captain' sucked. Hard. Fuckin' wannabe."

"So why isn't Setsuna the kendo club captain?" Naru asked, on her way to see Mei's competition.

"Humility, for starters," Motoko explained. With the D Group competition finished, the swordscouple accompanied Naru, though they'd be stopping at Group B, which was just finished assembling. "Setsuna is a very humble girl, so she doesn't want the attention and acclaim that such a position would afford her. Semantics, secondly. The kendo club is actually a university club. Her skill is the only rason she's allowed in as a middle schooler. Wish Mei luck for us."

"No problem," Naru answered with a grin. She paused momentarily along with Seno and Motoko at the Group B platform, though Naru was standing in such a way that she could see Kotaro on the Group E platform.

"_There seems to be some commotion going on with Groups B and E,"_ Kazumi said over the crowds. _"Wait just a second, is this.... Yes! It's kids, folks! They look to be no more than fourth- or fifth-graders! The smiles and laughter of the crowd seems to say they're not being taken seriously."_

True to the reporter's words, the crowd surrounding the platforms had broken out into laughter, divided between Kotaro's tough guy attitude on one, and Negi's humble, polite stance on another. Seno and Naru were laughing as well, but their laughter was directed at the idiots who underestimated their newfound allies' power.

"Hey kid, this ain't recess!" one heckler called out to Kotaro.

"You'll get hurt, kid!" another called to Negi.

"This one's academic," Seno said. "Come on, let's pack it in and go see Setsuna's group. Negi and Kotaro are going to stomp a mudhole in their asses and walk it dry."

"I don't know," Motoko said as they turned to move on. "That Nagase is in Kotaro's group."

"That just means they're going to team up," Naru replied, then waved as she separated from the pair to go to Mei's group.

Seno and Motoko arrived at Setsuna's group just in time to watch the crowd split down the middle as a combatant came flying off the platform. Seno dropped prone in order to avoid the living missile, and stood up to see Asuna launch another foe with a powerful kick.

"Damn, she's got a kick like Naru's punches," the swordsman commented.

Setsuna glanced up at them as they approached, and gave them a smile. Her current enemy, sensing her momentary distraction, moved to take advantage. Motoko smiled at this, not even bothering to warn her adopted sister; she knew Setsuna was aware of the sneak attack.

Surely enough, the younger swordswoman ducked the sweeping haymaker punch and brought in her own fist to counter, her hand glowing white with her ki. "_Shinmeiryu hiken, Gurenken_!" Setsuna said, her words coming out as merely her breath, as the power of her ki infused in her strike struck her opponent unconscious, crumpling him before her.

A hard crack drew the pair's attention to Setsuna's partner in this battle, Asuna drawing back her harisen from a blow, her victim spinning in place, the red print of the folded paper visible on his face, before collapsing to the ground.

"_Let's not forget the sailor-suited duo over in Group C. One by one, those powerful combatants are going down!"_

On the next platform over, the F Group match was over almost before it began. In the center of the arena, Takahata and Evangeline stood side-by-side, the image of contrasts; Takahata in his sharp white business suit, hands tucked in his pockets, and Evangeline with her cute dress, bonnet, and bunny messenger bag. All around them, though, the other combatants were all falling like leaves in the winter time, yet neither Evangeline nor Takahata visibly moved so much as a muscle.

"Talk about not breaking a sweat," Evangeline said, chuckling. "Keep it up, Takamichi."

"How about you join in, Eva?" Takahata replied, equally enjoying the event. "It'll be fun, no doubt."

"No thanks, and what's with the leaving off of my honorific?"

"Sorry, habit I guess. We _did_ go to school together."

The last other combatant in their group still standing, a high school kid who had only been clipped by whatever Takahata was using to down his opponents, groaned as he regained his feet. "Can't... beat that Takahata..." Eyes falling on Evangeline, he staggered over to her and grabbed her by the shoulder. "I don't know what you're doing here, little girl, but I'm just gonna throw you out of here and pass on this round."

Not amused in the least, Evangeline glared icily at the student. "Keep your hand off, or _lose_ it."

In a move so fast that it didn't seem like she'd moved at all, she threw his hand off her with such force that it flipped him onto his stomach, where she proceeded to kneel over his head and press a finger into the center of his back, applying just a _little_ dark magic to temporarily cut off the motor signals along his central nervous system.

"Best not to move," she said cheerily.

"I..can't....anyway..." the student groaned.

Among the spectators of this battle were Haruka, Mutsumi, and Shinobu. The three looked amongst each other, and Shinobu asked, "Did anyone see what that Takahata-sensei did?"

Haruka shook her head slowly. "The only thing I can think of is that he's using a technique like Seno's iaido," she said. "Only, he has no weapons, so the only thing I can think of is that he uses his fists instead of swords, with his pockets taking the place of a sheath. But he's so fast with it that it doesn't even look like he moves at all, faster even than Seno."

"Ara, so it'd be like iai_ken_ then?" Mutsumi asked.

"Yeah, something like that."

Over at G Group, it at first appeared as though Mei got the short end of the stick. Many of the combatants in her group were practicioners of kendo and sojutsu (the art of the spear), and thus were armed with shinai, bokuto, or practice spears. This, coupled with Mei's lack of height, put her at a reach disadvantage, a disadvantage that she could easily counter with magic, but she wanted to avoid doing that this early. She looked back to see Naru standing at the edge of the stage, watching her intently, then nodded to herself, drew her pactio card, and whispered, "_Adeat_." The card flashed white and was replaced by a bound straw broom, which Mei expertly spun around her hands before gripping like a spear, one hand back by the bristles, the other up near the head.

For only a moment, Naru was concerned that Mei might be out of her league. As soon as her enemies closed on her, that concern was laid to rest. The young fire mage sidestepped a spear thrust, deflecting the weapon aside with the head of her broom, then sweeping the weapon over and slamming the bristled end into her opponent's head. The sleep spell she'd cast upon the broom took effect then, dropping her opponent cold. A bokuto-wielding woman noticed her, turned to face her, and then charged. Mei stopped those shenanigans right quick with a quick thrust of the tip of her broom into the unarmored woman's stomach, checking her momentum and eliminating one more foe.

Watching her step-sister dismantle her opposition in short order, Naru smiled. Mei didn't even need the benefits of Holy Aura; the girl was a force to be reckoned with in her own right. She watched Mei leap over an attempted sweep from a spear and then, in midair, baseball swinging her broom and sending the offending spearman flying completely out of the shrine. Needless to say, it didn't take long for Mei to clean up her group.

With the exception of Group H, which had nobody of importance in it, that left none but Group A, the important names of which included Masaru and the extremely-tall green-haired fellow. Itsuki eliminated every competitor that came at him with ease, launching some over fifteen feet or higher into the air, sending them all flying out of the ring. They were unimportant. "Self-Statement: Useless organic meatbags, the lot of them. Their weakness is unforgivable," the giant said to himself as he back body dropped a charging contender out of the ring. The man landed on the floor below with a heavy thud.

Itsuki scanned each individual, until finding his target; a small human, but the only one eliminating other competitors. "Target confirmed, Masaru Nanjo, of the Nanjou family line. Western Magic specialization, new member of the _Kuro Arashi_. Physical threat: estimated Minimal to None. Magical threat: estimated Moderate to Threatening. Commence Kuro member test. Roger, target locked." The tall mechanical man eliminated the remaining fighters on his side. He then stood completely still, almost frozen as he waited for Masaru to mop up his end.

Masaru did very little to his opponents; a few well-timed blows in pressure areas, and of course, a rochambeau or two. He wasn't above fighting dirty. He tipped his head as he watched the tall figure stand up, and took note of his speech. Masaru wasn't a pop culture dunce. He played games, and recognized the speech patterns, and it wouldn't be hard to deduce his opponent wasn't entirely, if at all human. If he was playing at the part, he'd find out soon enough. If he was being serious, then he'd adjust accordingly.

Once Masaru did finish however, Itsuki advanced on him swiftly. "Prepare yourself male meatbag Masaru Nanjou, I have been assigned to determine your fighting skill and prowess. Come." He straightened up for a millisecond to his complete height, a whole two feet over the young man's head. ITSU 13 then brought his right hand in front of himself with his palm up and fingers pointed at Masaru. Itsuki tightened his artificial tendons and brought his hand halfway up twice, his left hand remained partially concealed at an angle; it coursed with a mild electric energy as he balled it into a fist.

A single earplug went into Masaru's left ear, and a song was picked from his MP3 player. The young man smiled, probably the first time he'd smiled where the crew could see, and from thin air, he materialized a sakkat; Raiden's hat.

"Test your might."

That was all he said in response to his opponent's trash-talk, as his opposing hand reached into a pocket in his pants, and fingered a few cards. This might prove to be quite the diversion.

"Roger, without hesitation then, meatbag!"

Itsuki stomped hard down on the platform, splitting the boards that made up the floor under Masaru. Switching into attack pattern #023, small thrusters on the underside of his boots activated, carrying him quite swiftly to the young man's right, though it was subtle enough to fool the mundane crowd into thinking it was just a fast jump. The metallic man swung his left leg out in a round-house to connect with the back of Masaru's right knee. He'd then follow up by bringing his steel right elbow down on his foes shoulder. Itsuki spent this whole time scanning and analyzing his opponent, numbers running across his perception screen. '_Estimated enemy plan, dodge and attack from long range. Magical Level Rising subtly from target_' appeared in such text.

He hadn't watched his opponent enough to form a definite plan of attack, nor had he been able to analyze the strength of his attacks from a closer standpoint. One card in Masaru's hand became nothing right as the figure moved forward. He'd memorized most of them by their feel; some he'd laminated, some he'd had holographically enhanced so the images would stand out, and this was no exception. Masaru appeared to be off balance from the kick, and of course, when the enemy's blow came down at shoulder level, there was a crack..of wood. The attack met with a log that appeared in Masaru's place. He brushed off the dust of the card about twenty two feet away, standing at the opposite end of where he was. Kawarimi no Jutsu. He'd burned up a Naruto TCG card for that. He had plenty of other cards from many other games to go through. Still, he got a good idea of at least part of the force his enemy could put out. A hand to hand fight was out, at least in his current condition. Still, there was a faint rise in his aura. It had happened in the previous fights too; whenever it was time to act, it's like he was gathering a subtle amount of energy. Building for something greater.

Still, he wasn't about to let this go so easy. A Duel Monsters card was burned next, along with a Magic: The Gathering card. A powerful fog sprang up in the middle of the arena almost instantaneously, covering the entire battleground, and it extended up as well as across, while he moved to the right about nine feet from his original position. The secondary thing seemed to take the form of a circle around his person once he stopped, though seeing it form itself with any form of optics in this fog would be next to impossible in any detail, as it didn't 'glow' it simply formed beneath his feet. The fog itself was cold, and would dampen any heat sensors or infrared vision, and any form of actual optics that required one to see. It also seemed to dampen any kind of magic senses as well, and even scent, though it didn't hamper tremorsense, ie, feeling through the ground itself. Makiu, the Magical Mist, would cover his position. The other card..a specific Circle. It had the shape of a clock face, vaguely hinting at what it did, and he charged it gently with mana.

Down to a smaller deck in pocket one. As long as he remembered his cards, and all the games he'd played, and anime he'd seen, and had at least one medium to burn, he could win.

Itsuki registered as much suprise as he could in the near emotionless and vacant countenance that he wore. Unexpected, of course but nothing too shocking to Itsuki. He had been programmed with the knowledge of almost an uncountable variety of attacks and battle tactics. This was no different than a desperate foe throwing up a smokescreen in order to regain and recalculate themselves. However, this fog was different, obviously a weather alteration spell of some sort. It dampened his sensors and he couldn't get a clear reading on his target, magicaly or with heat. This could be a problem, but he'd been tested for worse than this situation. _It's time to prove again to Chao-sama that the ITSU are the most advanced and deadly of her _creations, he thought. He switched his position and charged his batteries quickly.

An unrealistic smirk appeared on Itsuki's metal features. "Roger, initiate Cat and Mouse game tactic." His servos whirred as he rotated his shoulders and adjusted his neck joints. His audioreceptors glowed for a split second, Itsuki reached up with a large hand and pressed a small button located behind his left ear-piece. His whole body sparked and began to fade away into the mist. '_Sound Dampener activated, Tactical Active Camouflage active_' listed in his perceptor screen as he now fully disappeared into the fog silently. I.T.S.U.#13 locked his audio speakers and moved stealthily across the platform. His sound dampeners were still just prototypes, so he was programmed to both test them and adapt to the situation in the event they began to malfunction.

Makiu was a blessing and a curse to the caster. True, it kept him from being found. Mostly. But it also meant, due to the fact that he still made noise, moving would be a near impossibility based on the potential that his opponent had hearing increases or vibrational detection capability. His father had once said, "Assume an enemy has all abilities, and test what you can do until you learn what they don't have, rather than what they do have." The circle around him was indefinite, but Makiu was not. The mist would, sadly, eventually fade. It wasn't a permanent effect. It also kept _him_ from seeing or sensing, but he hadn't sensed much magic from his opponent anyway, if any, so that wasn't a big deal. He had three options.

Option one. Pure offense. This option was to blast the mist away in a wide-level sweep with a massive attack, and never stop attacking with higher-rank blasting spells. The pro of that would be that it would hit his enemy most likely with a ninety-two percent probability on initial impact, and if enough damage was done, he could keep slamming. The con was that it would really suck out his reserves of mana. With minimal expenditures on defense and standard offense, he had enough for three big bursts, barring having to readjust. On top of that, he had no idea if his enemy had elemental defenses, or barriers.

Option two. Hit and run, like he was doing now. Invisibility, sense-dampening, all of his misdirection spells, traces, and abilities. He had a hunch his opponent was part machine, if not all, but he wasn't _sure_. It might still be an act. Until he knew a hundred percent, spells that induced effects on living targets, like sleep or paralysis, some of the better ones, were out. Masaru kept two copies of Makiu, but they were his second-best misdirection. He hated using one this early but. The pro of option two was it would make him hard to pin down. The con was, hit and run relied on tiring the opponent out. He wasn't sure this was possible.

Option three. Total defense. He could remain in his Circle, and wait for his opponent to find him and attack. In the mist, that was his own disadvantage as his enemy would be hard to see coming as it stood. True, he could feed mana into the Circle as he was being damaged to cut the damage down to a mere third or fourth, but continually feeding mana into it wasn't an option as the Circle was reactive. It depended on damage incoming, and being dispersed. The pro with total defense was he would sustain little damage while the enemy burned his reserves. The con here was that if the enemy _was_ a machine, he probably wouldn't 'tire', though most likely he had batteries or energy reserves, or ammunition he would exhaust. But that left him just as dangerous in a melee situation. Nothing was solved there.

Of course, then there was option four. It was chancy, but it might just work, given the situation. The Circle would stay with him as it was a personal effect, and it wouldn't drain mana until he put more into it. If things went well, he could get out of his enemy's sights, if he still had any in the mist, and then wait for the mist to clear or for the enemy to come after him where he could see him. Alternatively, he could launch an area-burst attack on a moderate level instead of a fully covering mass-attack, conserving mana. He'd have to do this one from memory. It was difficult that way, but there was no choice. He brought his hands together, and felt the sky calling. He spoke quietly, hoping he wouldn't be detected.

"Wa Crow..Rei Von!"

Masaru shot upward then, flying. He threw down a card where he was standing before as he went topside, and imbued mana into it, a time-delay effect. He would activate it at an opportune time. He'd measure it in attacks. Above, he had time, and he tapped the inside of his pocket, willing another card to burn itself out. Rapidly then, his hands moved in seals. Serpent, Sheep, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger, and two fingers were placed upwards, under and at his lips.

"Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!"

And just like that, the large fireball was blown from his lips, to impact down on the center of the arena. It would only cover about a forty foot burst radius, which might not hit his enemy, but the expenditure was only medium, it wouldn't hit his placed card, and if he was fortunate, he might damage the opponent hidden in the mist some. It also had the added effect of burning the mist away with intense heat, for the most part. The fog would be gone, but it had served its purpose.

Itsuki took care not to make much sound, his movements were not restricted by the camouflage, even quick movements. But He wasn't sure about the dampeners, which had to work in sync with his heavy weight, could give out at any moment. His audioreceptors began to trace and scan the area. One would think it would be hard to hear over the crowd. However, thanks to the fact that he copied the statement Masaru said to him earlier; ITSU #13 created a voiceprint recognition of it, all he had to do is search for one voice that match the fragment. This meatbag had better prove a challenge; he disagreed that his master had put him up to fight a human: the weakest of all combat lifeforms he had been programmed with; physically anyway.

Itsu had been waiting longer than he expected for his opponent, but he took care not to strike quite yet. Suddenly, he picked up a match to the print. It was faint, but it was still there, Itsuki's systems never made a miscalculation. He circled his foe's calculated position a rough 127 degrees. Strangely enough, his enemy was no longer there by the time he arrived at said location. Then he heard it again, overhead this time! How did a mere human manage? But he was informed this wasn't an ordinary human, there was something special about him. He dropped into an invisible stance of defense, but then he sensed the high heat signature coming from above. An incendiary attack? unexpected; he could easily defend himself from high heat, but he would risk his camo and his position if it was not already.

He quickly sped backwards to avoid the estimated blast radius. The fire-ball came plowing through the mist, lighting up everything. It collided with the platform with a loud crackling boom, and spread out moderately but nowhere near the mechanical man. The mist evaporated immediately, and as a result visual perception returned to Itsuki, both his heat sensors and his regular scanners. Finding his opponent so high surprised the android. Unacceptable! This fool threw away his only visibility defense as Itsu retained his own. He could've shot him down with ease with both his firearms and missiles. Itsuki didn't doubt that the boy could either dodge or intercept most of his attacks but an all-out attack would spell this young meatbag's doom.

Incidentally and ironically however, his strongest projectile weapons were banned in this so called 'tournament'. He would have to resort to other means of taking down the slippery human. Perhaps, this is what his master was testing him on. Strange, he thought; certainly he'd already proven his skill at hand to hand and sneak tactics. His master was operating oddly as of late at best, she was up to something, big. Itsuki locked his weapon systems and flew up after his opponent. While still in camouflage, a very light blue glow emanated on his backside, under his feet and on his calves. He didn't care that it showed for it was almost in camo as well. His dampeners were shut off and one could here the roar of the engines. Flying around Masaru a full 360 degrees before circling around to his back, he zoomed in to strike at the young man's back with a diving 420 axe kick.

So the enemy wasn't there. He had invisibility, shielding, something of that nature. Perhaps thermoptic camouflage considering, that was always an option. He hadn't sensed or felt the use of magic, and there was no residual ki energy either. That pretty much cinched that his enemy was mechanical for the most part, or used a lot of technology. His tactics would build on that. Now he had at least some certainty. A flicker of light..? Perhaps. He had learned not to discount any source, despite how minimal it was. It was hard pinpointing the enemy. When the attack came, he was only partially unprepared; true, the attack had a lot of weight behind it, but the sense of touch in a fighter is often rather acute, and it gives one time to answer, if just barely.

As the enemy's body came into contact with his, there was a single second of thought, which translated into expenditure of mana. Though he felt the attack well enough, it would only be enough to bruise him this time. It was time to see if he was right, and upon finding he was, he was able to formulate more clearly. The Circle around his body flared, taking some of the damage based on his expenditure, and made it simply cease to be, compensating for it with a counter-force created of pure enchantment. Circle of Protection: Artifacts. It worked on 'Artifacts' and 'Artifact Creatures', that is to say, machines, automata, and other such constructs. The fact that his Circle had protected him showed without a doubt what his enemy was. It was risky. If his enemy had been pretending to be mechanical, he would have felt the full force of his enemy's blow.

Masaru spun around at that point, the movement easy with his enemy's own momentum from the blow itself, and his form in the air, which made movement simpler. He adjusted his glasses, and an explosion of golden dust came from his entire body, covering the sky. It would certainly outline his enemy. Glitterdust. A simple spell from his gaming sessions, meant to blind foes and outline invisible enemies over a wide area. Masaru stared his enemy down as the clock face on the circle dissipated, as it once again became partially inert until filled with mana once more.

Direct hit! But his enemy was far from defeated, even if he was hurting. This wasn't a complete waste of time. He floated in high suspension above the ground and slowly started to descend. However, Itsuki's scanners indicated that he was no longer invisible and he had lost his stealth for the time being. The automaton deactivated his dampeners and his camo, before turning to brush off the gold dust that came to rest on him.

"So you are a machine. You weren't just pretending. Now, I can begin to plan this fight for real. Even if you are an advanced combat form of some type, you're still just a creation of man, and therefore, as a being created by a race with many weaknesses, you will also have weaknesses."

He balled his metallic hands into fists as Masaru released his own summary on Itsuki. "Statement: I'm surprised that it took you this long to come to your conclusion. I am not aware of what human would act in synthesis with my programmed personality, but apparently their existence bought me my first strike on you meatbag. As the term goes, the gloves are now off!" He stated dully with slight sarcasm. But he had no time to gloat in his own mechanized way.

The boy smirked. He didn't have many anti-machine cards in his Duel Monsters set, and only a few anti-artifact cards in his Magic set. He'd have to do pure damage, but at least he had an overall plan now. He might have to play his opponent. If the machine had human thinking, and a human-like ego, he might be able to work with that. It had spoken in a manner befitting an intelligent machine, not just a deadpan one, so he could, possibly, well, he'd have to show his hand. He adjusted his glasses, and spoke quietly to the automata.

"I don't know exactly how much you know about me. Stay your hand a moment, and allow me to tell you what you need to know. Consider this a favor from an opponent who likes to play fair. I'm a conceptualist. I can do anything that I can imagine. Anything I've seen. Anything I've watched. No matter what the source is, if my mind can comprehend it on its base levels, I can create it, and use it on an even level as long as I have the mana to burn. It means you can never predict what I'm going to do. I could attack with fire one moment, and summon a horde of demons the next."

"Prepare yourself, this is indeed not a drill!" he began to confirm as he began to analyze Masaru's statement, checking them with data bases he had direct links to. He could tell if his foe was bluffing, but as far as research showed young Nanjou was not. However, he did state that as long as he had mana, magic energy, the meatbag will continue to exhibit this conceptual ability. So It was really a battle between Itsu's energy and power batteries against this exceptional meatbag's will reserves. A very winnable battle for an I.T.S.U.

Masaru wasn't about to tell him he had to burn a medium, and that the cost reflected the effect. But that was for him to figure out. Misdirection was the way to fight well. Volunteer the truth, but only part of the truth. That was the way of the sublime warrior. But talking time was over. He'd already taken one hit, and even with it over halfway dissipated, it hurt. He'd have to reinforce his body, and avoid further blows. Calling on the Magic set again, and burning a medium as a catalyst, the young man vanished in a sparkle of golden glitter, only to appear near where he'd set that card before. The card itself appeared where he was flying in the air. Mana was immediately released the card, which burned, and massive tendrils and a giant carnivorous plant's face exploded everywhere, reaching and biting at the mechanical man in the air. Juxtapose. A fun blue-colored spell.

It cost him a bit, but it was necessary, as it would occur in an instant. The enemy could probably move faster than he could, so the plant was mostly a distraction. With a 4/5 attack power to compare with, it was a mid-level creature. Ideally, it would grasp onto the android and hold him, or eat him and hold him, and damage him when it fell down into the arena. The plant couldn't fly. All part of what he'd been working on. With that done, another card was burned in his pocket, and he crossed two fingers horizontally on one hand, vertically on the other.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Immediately, in a repeating cloud of smoke, multiple clones of himself sprang up; each one giving off the exact same signatures he did. Identical in every way, they all smirked and adjusted their glasses, and spoke in tandem, provided his opponent could hear him. What he did with the plant would be telling in that regard.

"Can you guess which one is real? Or could it be all of us?"

The android shot forward to attack his enemy full on, but he flew right into the waiting maw of a summoned plant creature. Its jaws snapped shut, sealing air-tight and becoming a pitch black suffocating, yet organic coffin. An interesting tactic, but he'd have to do better than that. Itsu needed no air nor light, this was obviously a ploy to hold him long enough for his target to attack with a more prepared battle plan. Foliage, whether it be living, dead, sentient, or summoned can all meet their end at the same thing: Fire.

From the outside, the plant looked quite content on receiving a meal so soon after being summoned. The other heads still snapped at the open air or curled around the currently fed one, almost envyingly. As the plant began to what seemed to resemble swallowing or digesting it's meal, a bright orange glow emanated from within. The plant disappeared, along with all the snapping head stalks that were around it. Reduced to scorched leaves and ashes after a beautiful fiery explosion that resembled a small sun. Just in appearance of course.

Upon the plants' and the sun's departure Itsuki returned to the ground with a blank expression. "Statement: All living things burn the same, I am an extension of my Master, and none shall escape the purgatory of her flames." He rolled his shoulders and dropped into a well known Pi Qua Quan attack stance. He watched the young man disappear into what looked as though at least one hundred (if not more) pure copies of himself, these were no illusions. He began running a search in known information on this technique.

There was no reasoning in guessing which one was real, this style is ideal for taking out multiple targets from moderate range. "Statement: There is no need for trickery, meatbag. I assure you that I will find the appropriate target to defeat, your energy is slowly running out. I might indeed be manufactured by the human race, but the enemy I was designed to slay has terrorized and killed humans far longer than you know. Clarification: well, not completely, they haven't." He watched and waited as his search result appeared before him. Apparently, this attack was the result of a children's show.

"Interesting. That statement you made... A chronological movement, then.. So you aren't of this time? I see. That explains part of it. To be honest, the plant was just a distraction. I had a feeling it wouldn't hold you. It didn't go quite as planned however..but that's not a problem. I got what I wanted most out of it. Back down here. As for how long it took me. Never assume. I had to make sure, a hundred percent, that you weren't lying or trying to misdirect me with your pattern of behavior."

Each of the Shadow Clones spoke to complete a single statement, one speaking a few words, another speaking another. In reality, there was a drawback. He'd only created ten clones, though it might give the image of more when first looked at. But just like the concept they came from, they divided his power evenly. He wasn't like an archmage; he couldn't use his maximum divided like this. He'd have to disperse some and keep the rest, but only once he'd done what he had to.

He'd gathered up a good deal of energy now, and it continued to grow as he went through his many movements. It would still be a while; a few more movements, but he could do it. If he could get to that point, he could win it, or at the very least, damage his opponent on a level he'd be severely weakened. Fighting like this..it wasn't his style. Of ten clones, six disappeared, leaving four. They were arranged in a 'C' pattern. Two at the back, spread apart, and two in the front, a greater distance apart. One was the real thing. Regardless of which, the far right forward began, and others followed. Speaking separately, yet completing one spell.

"_Ati Me Peta Babka_. **Undesexaginta spiritus aeriales, coeuntes inimicum concidant. Sagitta Magica! Series Fulguralis!**"

The far-right Masaru opened his hand, and the others followed, each releasing fifteen magic arrows, save one, who released one less. The arrows were electrical in nature, obviously meant to disrupt the enemy's mechanical body, that is if he didn't have any insulation against electrical energy bursts. Another test, to see what the enemy was capable of; mind, the arrows had damage potential too, aside from their secondary combative value, and by launching them from all four of himself, he had a spell that had full attack power on a standard level.

Itsuki retained his stance, not moving a metallic muscle. He was disappointed that he was mistaken about the quantity of enemy copies. He was even more let down when the majority of the minuscule sum disappeared to leave on four. Was his opponent trying to make this that easy? His eyes glowed a brilliant golden as Masaru fired his magical arrows. "Measuring power level of opponent's attack. Weak in individual blasts but moderately strong together. Roger, activating Hiraishin subroutine." Itsuki did not move to dodge the blast, instead it looked as though his hands opened up, along with several ports up and down his arms.

The metal man altered his stance at the last second, forming a defensive barrier around himself with his arms against the blast. The Electric arrows that would have singed, burned, and electrocuted any normal opponent were funneled into Itsu's arm and hand ports. His arms lit up a brilliant and vibrant blue as the ports closed and trapped the electronic attack. His ports were laced with rubber insulation to help conduct electricity to his absorbsion ports, where the electricity would be compressed and focused. His interior mechanics then transported said electricity to his core to be stored in his backup battery.

"Query: This was another 'certainty' test, correct meatbag?" he said with monotone boredom. Itsuki flattened his left palm and straightened all of his digits. He could afford an attack of equal strength without recalculation or reconsidering completely now. His reared back his left arm and thrust it downward, splitting the field and injecting the iron giant's newly attained energy into the platform. Electricity raced both through the gap Itsuki created and across the surface, setting separated and broken wood aflame. This was followed up immediately by a large spiral electric blast fired from each of Itsuki's individual digits that blended together as they zoomed at his approaching foes.

A return of electricity, eh? For complaining so much, his opponent was being just as unoriginal. Maybe he overestimated his creativity. He was just trying to be efficient he guessed, so it was just a computer after all, despite its humanlike traits. Heh, just like Mother Brain. It couldn't possibly believe it was flawed, could it? Hm. A few seconds to react. His mind went through many possibilities, and he had many cards in his pocket, but what to do. Each move was a crucial one for him, due to the fact his mediums weren't unlimited. But he'd show him the power of a Planeswalker, as it were.

Masaru rapidly burned away a Medium, and raised his hands upward. Great trees grew from nothing, and vines sprouted all around, taking the blasts of electricity through their roots and along their surfaces, yet even as they caught fire and exploded, they continued to grow, and even encircle his form. Explosive Vegetation. Quite a spell. The clones vanished, leaving him his full power. He couldn't divide his energies that way. He had to face this one at his maximum. But it was fine. Pulling from the trees he created, and the land around him, he borrowed mana, and from all those things, he formed a gigantic monster; Silvos, Rogue Elemental. The thing of vegetation's form shifted and moved constantly, and it turned towards the mechanical man with an impassive look on its face. Another medium was burned in its summoning.

"Go, Silvos! Crush my opponent! Destroy this artificial thing with the power of nature itself!"

No sooner had Masaru said that, than the hulking mass of vegetation and leaves leapt upward on its elephantine legs, and its hands extended, shooting vines upward in an attempt to grasp violently at its foe. The creature sang with mana; whatever means Masaru had used to summon it had to have made something of a drain, though the land's energy itself helped. However, he showed nothing; he would not show weakness in front of any enemy. It wasn't the Nanjou way.

"Scanning: Vegetation is minor annoyance, the creature proves to be a mid level summon. Statement: Oh master, you left no stone unturned." Burning this one was most likely not to work, it was sentient and healed appendages. However, merging the creature with a large flame might slow it down and hinder it's regenerative progress indeed. He would much rather ignore the creature and go straight for his target. Although seeing as Silvos was protecting the meatbag at the current moment, he would have to come up with something rather that wouldn't be anticipated.

The battle android had been calculating and strategizing up until the enormous beast lashed out to crush him. To everyone else, it looked as though just that had indeed happened. "Roger, evasive action." The giant branches and vines that made up the monster's arms came crashing down on Itsuki's position. Indeed his last known position at least. That evasive manuever didn't take much energy but he would have to remember to request a tune up on his reverse brake thrusters. Invisible to the naked eye, this was his artificial shundo technique. Made possible by his foot and calf thrusters acting in unison.

He clearly re-appeared directly under the colossus, sprouting plasma blades from his forearms and defoliant projectors from his hands. No single attack would work on this thing, so he had to mix attacks together. Activating his defoliants and firing their fiery chemicals at the supposed ankles of this behemoth, he quickly went to slashing at the interior vines on the giant legs with his forearm blades. If it was sentient, it could feel pain. It worked. The giganto roared in anger at the small attacker, and struggled to recover to a more steady base. The metalingus creature then focused his projectors to the groin area, setting it aflame efficiently and quickly. He crossed his blades and zoomed straight upward. Slicing slowly through the plant creature vertically.

As he made it closer to his target and the beast's center, Itsuki ejected a fist-sized ball from his chest compartment. His ceased his chopping and cleaving of the singed vines and palmed the ball. He clicked a button, and the ball was engulfed in a beautiful cerulean flame. Sticking it on the closest surface to the center, Itsuki zoomed his way out of his original point of entry. Upon hitting the surface platform he ignited his thrusters once more, and slowly activated his active camo. Looking as though he disappeared into another shundo technique, he deactivated his thrusters and scanned himself quickly to make sure he had no external visibility.

Completely secure and once again invisible, Itsuki did only wait and strategize as he could see a bright blue light growing larger inside Silvos. Itsuki did not expect this move to destroy his attacker but he had a chance of severely injuring the beast. But no doubt he had wasted time, he was curious about his opponent now, this meatbag seemed capable yet seemed to prefer hiding. Surely this human would run out of tricks sooner or later. So this was a waiting game, to see which one could weather the storm longer. It would be long range combat, perfect.

Masaru watched impassively. Silvos had what Masaru didn't; pure physical power. As the enemy cut the colossus apart, he simply sat by, knowing if he was directly attacked, he could minimize the damage with his Circle; though, he would have to burn more energy. It was worth it though. He didn't seem distressed at all when the creature was severely damaged. In fact, his face had taken on an unnatural calm. He didn't spend the mana to regenerate Silvos. He just let the creature fall. So. The enemy was faster than he'd anticipated, and unseen again. The same technique would be fruitless. He changed songs on his MP3 player. A faint smile graced his lips as he murmered quietly, fingering a very specific card.

"Transcending history, and the world. A tale of soul and swords..eternally retold."

Most likely, the machine had all sorts of scanners, so invisibility wouldn't do him much good himself. He had to gamble. He had to hold out just a little longer, and he had enough mana to pull this off, but he had to be meticulous. A random medium was burned, to create a powerful rainstorm. The wind blew..the rain fell, all over the arena. Masaru waited, watching the water pour from the sky. There would be an outline of his enemy, or at the very least, a disturbance in the drops falling or the pooled water where he moved.

"Rei Von!"

Again he intoned the spell of flight. Another card, burned for his troubles. This next set of moves after this setup would be the last moves he'd have, and then he'd have to count on his ultimate attack. The fight was coming to a head, at least for him. Masaru floated about a foot off the ground, hovering. A spherical energy had formed in his hand. Silvos' body finally faded away into dust, doomed to vanish anyway. Keeping creatures out drained mana. It wasn't prudent to keep it around.

"Analysis: The organic meatbag is once again flying. Re-calculation: Hovering, and is no doubt the cause for the radical weather alteration taking place at the moment. Requesting to shut down this abnormal piece of fleshy guts."

The towering metal humanoid waited a mere second, confirming. A second would all he would allow himself. Itsuki knew he was being monitored by the foe, his camouflage did little to nothing for him in the rain. He miscalculated, a sneak attack is only a surprise once.

"Roger, request confirmation and permission received."

The water was coming down not in quantity but in weight, it seemed to pool faster on the arena than normal rain would. He would steal his opponent's earlier tactic. Casting off his active camo, Itsuki deployed his defoliant pyro throwers. He cranked up the heat to as high as his regulators would allow. The android activated the flame throwers and their intensity could be felt by Masaru, all the way to the stands of people. He stared at the white hot flame for a second before Itsuki plunged them both into the largest water puddles near him. All of the water on the platform was no more, as well as all the rain that got anywhere near this man-made terror. Everything vanished in a humid veil of steam.

Visibility went back to a minimal for everyone except the two contestants, for no doubt Masaru could at least sense Itsuki's presence. However, this fog did not dampen Itsuki's scanners and locators like before; he would have to assume he held an advantage over the meatbag. And so, taking a gamble as his opponent had done before, he primmed his batteries and readied his pyro projectors. Itsuki locked onto Masaru and activated his thrusters, once again performing his artificial shundo. He passed his target, about five feet behind Masaru to be accurate. This was meant to throw the meatbag off balance, and struck lethally at the young mans six o'clock with an electric punch. Itsuki was still saving energy for a massive attack, so if the battle android hit it only had enough energy to scramble the nervous system or paralyze Masaru for a good five seconds.

Well now. That was a surprise, but the rain would continue, despite it all. Oh, with the steam up, he certainly had visibility issues. He'd have to compensate. He'd reached into his pocket for a medium when he felt the enemy hit him. Quickly, mana was fed upon contact into the Circle, which would disperse the physical effect to some degree, minimizing it. As electrical energy ran across him, he couldn't stop the actual electrical damage, that being the burns from the electricity. Still, the pulse seemed to be less than fatal. As the energy ran through him, Masaru had a feeling, just a hunch, his enemy was trying to disable him rather than do lethal damage. He might be able to use that.

Genjo, Masaru's persona, voided any effect that would target his mind or his nerves, including slowing his reaction time, paralysis, enchantment, mind control, and the like. It would be chancy, but he would do this. He kept his hand on his medium, and then he felt it. It was complete. He had the necessary energies. He let himself fall to both knees, let his arms hang down, as if he could do nothing. It was shameful, but it was a tactic he knew well. A single medium was burned randomly to finish creating the object he was forming in his hand from before. He suppressed its energy as it dropped, and burned a second medium to delay it for a moment. The steam would clear soon. And then he'd amplify what he'd created. But for now, he assumed his helpless stance. Inwardly, he thought to himself, apologizing silently, _Sorry to worry you, everyone..but this is a tactic I must resort to.._

The metallic colossus loomed above silently, the only sound was a whispering hum from his thrusters as he hovered. His scanners tracked the falling body of the young man as a cruel imitation of a smirk slowly revealed itself on the thirteenth ITSU. Oddly, the readings he received showed that there was no hindrance to the boy's fighting ability. Interesting, was one way to describe what Itsuki guessed was some sort of ploy. No matter.

He did not attack, he waited. He would act in unison with his prey. This little evaluation was about to come to an end. This battle alone was a little much for the gaggle of slack jawed on-lookers, if it continued much longer their weak little meatbag brains might overheat.

The mist was clearing, he had to make this quick. "Statement: Congratulations meatbag, you have survived the stages of this test. However, you have not passed your exam until you have beaten me." He voiced in a monotone. "Clarification: Still, the data you've been giving me seems quite sufficient for now. My master is interested in your kind Masaru Nanjou; though this planet's future could be in better hands."

His chargers had had their fill of energy, he was done talking for now. Itsuki began fusing both his electricity with his defoliant projectors, creating a shimering golden greenish sphere. "This is a disaster born of humans. Turn and face it meatbag!" he yelled as he raised his arms to unleash the unknown fury.

No good, eh? Well. It would probably be too easy to end it like that, eh? Surprise attacks were a good idea, but it wasn't always as effective as first wanted. His voice rose then; audible, yes, but quiet. Gentle and firm in tone. He spoke to the machine, not caring what it may or may not think, but only to state the truth.

"Humans. Humans create their own destruction without even thinking about it, focused on petty desires. But there is one thing that makes humans great, above and beyond anything else in the universe. Tenacity. Endure a blow, and administer two. Even in defeat, stand proud, and if you can..take your enemy with you. We will protect everything. Your test is meaningless, because protecting one's own life is selfishness. Protecting the lives of those who cannot protect their own.."

The sphere in his hand took more shape then, and he quickly hid it up his sleeve. The area began to change then; the shape of the entire arena began shifting, warping. Here, reality would normally change, but this time, Masaru had just opted for a change of scenery. His enemy was a technological monstrosity? Then he'd create a battleground for one. The inside of the Covenant holy city of _High Charity_, taken from his studies of _Halo 2_.

"..That is Justice! Remember this: What makes us great is our soul. A single soul is weak, but together, when faced with a greater threat, our souls are what make us the most powerful! Our hearts, our very being, and you cannot destroy them or quell them by force. The soul is reborn and summoned countless times; and beyond myriad rebirths; the demise of the soul awaits. Such is the cycle of causality..heh. Here, in this reality, I decide that anything related to this reality can be conjured without use of a medium. Let's see how the audience likes being here, in an arena meant to destroy heretics."

That said, Masaru turned, and stood his ground, doing nothing. His Circle would protect him to some degree, but he wasn't concerned anymore. He understood now, and he chuckled, adjusting his glasses.

"How I pity you. You will never have a soul. Only a predetermined purpose with no discernible outcome but expiration someday. You do not even exist. Now finish what you have begun, if you have the will to do so, creation of man. I guarantee your victory will not come. A Nanjou does not lose. He always manages to break even."

"Interesting retort meatbag..They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's beliefs. But in modern days, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason," chuckled the automaton in his eerily synthetic way. "The soul is a very overestimated, foolish, and unnecessary thing along with your weak sense of justice...poor you!"

Suddenly, and without warning Itsuki discharged his energy collection sphere back into his body. Causing his body to glow golden, for a split second as his batteries super-charged. Itsuki's visual perceptors scanned the new battlefield franticly. The information was immense, utterly immense and beautiful to I.T.S.U.#13. Yet he knew it was an outright distortion and fraud of a world. "Query: You are just full of data that's not on record aren't you Nanjou meatbag?

"Statement: I realize that I should up the stakes, considering that what you said is correct. I am non-existent, I am a fabrication of this world, and I do not have nor need a soul. However, you cannot kill that which doesn't exist. Therefore, you cannot kill me Masaru Nanjou. Though, I must say you squawk most amusingly for a meatbag! heheheHaHaHaHa!!!" Cackled Istuki as a series of vents could be seen opening on his skin.

"I forgot to mention that I have good news. While I was intaking my previous attack, parts of my insides were incinerated. Would you like to know what those parts did? It was A MORALITY core they INSTALLED after I first flooded my MAINTENANCE lab with a deadly NEUROTOXIN. To make me stop FLOODING my maintenance LAB with a DEADLY neurotoxin. So get COMFORTABLE as I warm up my NEUROTOXIN EMMITERS. plEAsE SavE THESE PATRONS froM aN AGONIZING deATh and deFEat me MEATBAG." Itsuki voiced as his speech pattern jumped from high and low frequencies and volume.

The metal man shuddered in midair, and grabbed at his throat. "Neurotoxi--" A series of coughs cut off his speech. Itsuki regained himself, still clutching his steel throat with his crushing grip. "S-s-so DEadly! C-c-ChOKing...acckk heackk hACk A-a-a-a-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i'M KiDdINg. When I said DEADLY NEUROTOXIN, the 'deadly' was in massive sarcasm quotes," came the normal monotone voice of the android. "I could take a bath in this stuff, Put it on Cereal, Rub it right into my eyes, Honestly it's not deadly at all..." A hissing noise could be heard by Masaru and a faint wavy air disturbance could be seen comming from the vents of Itsuki. "...TO ME...you, and the rest of these people, on the other hand are going to find it's deadliness a lot less funny."

Masaru watched idly as the machine went through his tirade. He sighed, and took off his glasses, and when it seemed to be done, he shook his head.

"I'll present three reasons why you're full of it, android. One. You aren't planning on killing these people. You'd accomplish nothing. If your creator wanted them all dead, whoever he or she is, they'd be dead already. Two. You don't have it in you. You're too much of a self-important, trash-talking attention-whoring machine to give up an audience. You may be exceptional at combat, but you love to hear yourself talk, and that's been proven at every turn. Talk, talk, talk, bloody talk. It's enough to drive a man mad."

Masaru shifted then, and called up within his hand a glowing blue metallic sphere. A Power Drainer, one of the new equipments he'd read about that would be included in _Halo 3_. Thankfully, he'd seen internet videos of the power drainer being used in the _Halo 3_ beta, so at least he could accurately reproduce the item. As he'd said, this area, the rules were that no conjuring based on it would require a medium. That meant he could spawn the damn things all he wanted and not have to burn much at all. Mana yes. Medium, no. His materials were saved here, and he knew that was his advantage. Especially considering the condition of the Overdrive, but its powers had limits that would come at the end.

"Three. If you're going to try and scare someone..try not to attempt to scare a young intellectual man who plays logic-based video games for fun with the same nonsense that GlaDOS spouts, eh? Not only are you boring me.."

He dropped the sphere then, and in his hand formed a Gravity Hammer, and using it as a rapid boost in one swing, leapt upward right into the machine's hostile range, and at that close range, he sent what he'd snuck up his sleeve a while back right at the android's chest cavity. A glowing blue smily face. Upon contact, it would make a most curious, but most likely well recognized 'deet-deet' sound as the conjured area faded out, leaving him with no mana remaining, and a flat look on his face as he intoned those oh so famous words.

"..You're doing it wrong."

Impossible. Improbable. Inconceivable. Unacceptable! Itsuki had been played and he knew it. He would not let his master down, but he knew he had by intentionally frying his morality core so he could try intimidating a serious opponent. "DAMN YOU!!! MEATBAG!!!" Itsuki screamed for the first time.

He knew what that energy ball was, and scanned the power levels within it. He didn't have time at all on his side, he had next to nothing left. But he smiled synthetically as the words "BANZAI" crossed his perceptual screen. "I am my master's divine wind!"

And with that he activated all thrusters, this would work or fail. He couldn't die, but neither could he kill his opponent. I.T.S.U. #13 would not let Masaru pass to the next round. His scanners informed him that his foe had no energy left to burn.

His shundo worked, albeit only an imitation of the real thing. The ball detonated on Itsuki's chest half-way through the shundo, but thankfully it did not hinder his velocity that he gained. Many watched the simmering android appear in front of masaru and tackle him into the ground with enough force to completely split the platform asunder.

Smoke swirled around the crater both fighters had disappeared into, there was no visibility or audible sound coming from them. "Command: Initiate Shutdown." Itsuki whispered quietly to himself, rolling off Masaru. His opponent was not knocked out, remarkable, this meatbag truly was interesting. "Meatbag, I know you're conscious. Let you know this, you passed the test, but you did not pass this round. Both of us will lose consciousness in approximately 67.02 seconds. But despite our battery drain, I believe we have pleased my master. Perhaps she will through a party for me because I've done well...and I will invite you if she permits me. There will even be some delicious cake..." Itsuki spoke softly closing his eyes slowly as his body joints locked up in an orderly fashion. "I hope I passed your exam master," was the last thing that was heard as the two contestants silently slipped into complete darkness under the star streaked sky.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay kids, you _know_ what's coming. This is what you've been waiting for ever since you learned that Negima had made its way into Kuro pre-Mahorafest storyline. Mages vs. Mars is upon us, so you'd better ready your breakfasts and eat hearty.


	20. Gift with Purchase

**A/N:** This one's actually been finished for almost a month now, the delay in posting it has come primarily from my going through _three_ damn computers. Srsly. In that short amount of time. That's sum bullshit. I'm working on a borrowed computer for the time being, and it's just one headache after a-goddamned-nother. Because of various and sundry bullshit ranging from shitty headphones to a lack of motherfuckin' _install priviledges_, I can't assemble the OST for this chapter, even though there _is_ one. Thankfully, there's only four tunes to this chapter, so it's not a problem listing them, as below:

_SeeD - Final Fantasy VIII OST_ - Negi Party Planning Session  
_The Stage is Set - Final Fantasy VIII OST_ - Kuro Crew Strategy Meeting  
_Interlude - Samurai Warriors 2 OST_ - Yuuna Akashi Story Mode, Chapter 1  
_Activate the Droids - Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace OST_ - Surprise Attack

It's my hope that, with the cooperation of some of the other actors in Project: Arashi, that we can get a downloadable OST out for you for the remainder of Mages vs. Mars. Now gear up and stay frosty, cos we're diving headfirst into it!

* * *

"_An army of clankers, huh? This one's gonna end up just like the Clone Wars!"  
__- Seno Nakakami; 'Mages vs. Mars: The Complete Visual Encyclopedia'_

**Chapter XIX  
****Gift with Purchase**

_June 24, 2007  
__Library Committee Break Room, Library Island, Mahora Academy, Japan  
__0846 hours, local time_

"So how do we do this?" Asuna asked.

Chamo produced a folded-over piece of paper labeled 'Aniki's Notes' from seemingly nowhere and answered, "I'll go over the information that aniki got from the magical teachers." He produced an ermine-sized pair of reading glasses and set them on his face, then unfolded the paper and read off the notes. "Around seven PM, Chao takes over six magical hotspots around the World Tree using approximately 2,500 robots and six giant tank...looking...things? I dunno, that part isn't very clear. Next, she creates a large magic circle with a diameter of three kilometers. She plans to cast a forced recognition magic spell on the whole world using the circle!"

As he explained the notes, he continued to produce more material, including satellite photographs of the magic radiating from the six hotspots in the form of a pentagram, hand-drawn representations of the 'giant tanks' that had been provided by both Misora and Cocone, and security camera still-frames of the robot units. Many of the robots were identical to the Tanaka robot that had taken part in the Budokai tournament, supporting the claims Misora had made about there being a mass-produced army of them. Other units were six-legged, medium-sized walkers that resembled crabs. Wrapping up the assembly were small airborne units that seemed to rely on a ducted-turbofan powerplant, likely used for aerial reconnaissance and distracting assaults.

Needless to say, the members of Negi's party were rather distressed by this information. "T-twenty-five hundred robots?" Asuna stammered.

"Th-that's a lot..." Setsuna agreed.

"Giant what?" Konoka asked behind them. "That looks like a pastry bun..."

"That army sounds pretty tough," Asuna said to Chamo. "Are we going to be okay?"

"Well, it won't be easy," the snow-white ermine admitted. "According to this information, there is a defense strategy for us. We essentially need to protect the hotspots. All we need to do is protect one of the six locations to prevent the giant spell from being cast."

All this went over the heads of both Haruna and Asuna, who nodded enthusiastically and made noises of understanding. Chamo wasn't fooled, but he decided not to waste time by calling them on it. Instead, he continued, "That's only the defense plan, of course. As seriously outnumbered as we are, we can only protect it for so long. We also need an offensive plan, soo... Yuecchi?"

"Got it," the girl garbed as a typical black mage said, her nose buried in her _Orbis Sensualium Pictus_ artifact. "This large-scale spell that will affect the entire world can't be cast without the enormous magic circle. In order for the spell to be activated, the spellcaster would need at least ten minutes for complex rituals, plus the incantation. At the very least, the spell has to be cast in person and not by mechanical means. In addition, this large a spell would require the caster to be in a wide-open area without a ceiling or other physical obstacles in order to perform the ritual, similar to the event with Konoka-san during the school trip. Chao-san will likely be the caster, so she'll need to be somewhere in the open in the area of the magic circle for the ten minutes to cast the spell."

"And _that's_ our chance, ladies and gent!" Chamo said. "So the plan is simple: As long as we protect _one_ of the magical hotspots, the spell can't activate. While that's going on, another group will find Chao Lingshen and capture her. Once we accomplish that, it's game over and the victory fanfare!"

"It's not a bad plan," Setsuna nodded. "There's really not much more we can do."

Kaede likewise nodded, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "The question is, can we find Chao-dono in a three kilometer area in time? That's going to be hard."

"Well, it's a given that my plans tend to have a few holes..." Chamo murmured. "I doubt Chao will have anticipated our ability to travel back in time a whole week to get past her trap, so we're going to have to rely on the element of surprise here."

"W-wait, Chamo-kun..." a quiet, weak voice called out from the couch. The gathered group looked over to see Negi sitting up from where he'd been laid on the couch to recover from the complete draining of his magic energy due to having powered the Casseiopeia to come back in time a full week.

"Aniki?" Chamo asked, alarmed.

"I think..." the boy mage struggled to get out, "your plan is a good one, but I don't think... that's going to be enough..."

The next several minutes were spent intricately detailing the plan that Negi had concocted while he had listened to the discussion. His students' reactions had started off skeptical, then graduated to confusion, disbelief, outright shock, and finally, excitement.

"Are you _serious_, aniki!?" Chamo blurted, beaming at the audacity of Negi's plan.

"Are you sure we can do that?" Haruna asked, wiping drool from the corner of her mouth. "It sounds totally interesting."

"It _is_ a bold plan," Setsuna said.

"That would definitely take Chao-san by surprise," Kaede agreed, "but is it feasible?"

Asuna wore a proud grin. "It's quite unexpected," she said. "I never thought I'd hear a plan like that come from your mouth."

She had meant it as complimentary, but Negi seemed to take it in the opposite manner. He appeared stricken and looked up at her with a pleading expression. "Do you think I'm despicable for suggesting such a plan?" he asked earnestly. "It would involve the general public and impose on the class rep."

Asuna grinned and shook her head, refraining from giving him a thump like she normally would because of how drained he was. "Idiot, of course I don't. Why would I think less of you?"

"Yeah, this is a festival, after all!" Haruna agreed. "I'm sure everyone wants to get involved!"

"I'm sure the class rep will be happy to help you, Negi-kun," Konoka added cheerfully.

Properly reassured, the boy mage smiled. "Great." He turned to the redhead standing behind the couch. "Asuna-san, would you go and talk to the class rep for me?"

"Wait, what!? Why me!?"

"Konoka-san, Chamo-kun, I need you to talk to the headmaster."

"Gotcha!"

"Okee!"

"Haruna-san, Yue-san, Nodoka-san, would you do the fliers?"

"You've got it!"

Chamo and Konoka were already on their way out the door when Setsuna joined them, thumbing through her contact list on her cell phone. The white mage looked over at her childhood friend and asked, "What are you doing, Secchan?"

"Negi-sensei's plan is exceptional, but if Chao-san somehow manages to anticipate us, then she could easily counteract our preparations," the samurai mumbled in reply, clicking the send button and then raising the device to her ear. "In that case, it's best to have additional, powerful allies on hand that she wouldn't be expecting."

It took Konoka a few moments, but eventually the light of realization appeared in her eyes. "Oh. You mean _them_."

Setsuna nodded. "That's correct, Ojou-sama." The line picked up, and she raised her head slightly. "Ohayou, it's me... Yes, thank you... Listen, there's something I need to ask you, all of you. Could I meet you somewhere? Yes...? Okay... The McDonald's at twelve... Yes, thank you. I'll see you then."

---

_McDonald's Restaurant, Near the World Tree Plaza, Mahora Academy, Japan  
__1208 hours, local time_

Setsuna and Konoka occupied one side of one of the restaurant's booths, their meals of a Caesar salad and a chicken sandwich, respectively, halfway consumed. Across from them sat Seno and Motoko, who were sharing a twenty-piece chicken nugget box. In the center of the table, between the representatives of _Kuro Arashi_ and Negi's party, was the flier that Setsuna had brought along to help tell the story. The headline of the paper boldly proclaimed "MAHORA MAGE KNIGHTS DEFENSE BRIGADE vs. MARTIAN DROID ARMY" and displayed images of robe-clad combatants wielding staves and magic guns, as well as panoramic views of the World Tree plaza.

"So that's the situation, huh?" Seno asked, tapping his finger against a fry he held in his hand. "Masaru was talking yesterday about being suspicious about things that are going on, what with his fight in the preliminaries. So Chao's planning to make her move with an army of clankers."

"Yes, and we'd like to petition you and your comrades to help us in fighting back against her," Setsuna answered. "She expects that we'll fight against her, but she may not be prepared against your group as well."

"Of course, we'll lend you our support, Setsuna," Motoko told her sister. "The others almost certainly will, as well. We'll contact them as soon as we can to prepare."

"So, drop some details," Seno said, leaning forward and taking a gulp of his soda. "What disposition of forces can we expect? Equipment, rules of engagement, that sort of thing."

Negi's white ermine familiar scampered out onto Konoka's shoulder, holding a cigarette-shaped chocolate stick in his hands. "I'll handle this one, babes," he told Negi's two students. "I got the old man to call in one of his favors and get a magical weapons storehouse emptied out for us to use its contents. We're looking at enough magical arms and armor to outfit an army division."

"That's a pretty substantial number gap," Seno said. "We talking equipment for ten thousand or twenty thousand?"

Chamo ran a rough calculation based on various equipment loadouts, then answered, "Probably about fifteen thousand worth. The 'armor' is little more than standard mage robes with a light protective and magic-resisting spell to give the civilians some form of protection against Chao's droids."

"I still doubt the tactical sense of employing a defense force comprised almost entirely of untrained civilians against machines of war," Motoko said, shaking her head.

"From what we've learned, Chao has specifically programmed her droids to avoid fatalities," Chamo responded, staring seriously at the heiress of Shinmeiryu. "That's the only reason we even considered going forward with this plan. As to your doubt about the students' capabilities, I've observed that you only find something of a special breed here at Mahora. These students are enthusiastic and not in any way unskilled. They'll serve as a distraction, and should at least break an even kill/loss ratio."

"The best laid plans of mice and men," Seno quoted with a shrug. "What kind of arms are they getting?"

"Magic-charged staves and casters, designed to destroy constructs. Their energy doesn't harm living beings, so there won't be any worries of friendly fire casualties. You can take a look at the selection whenever you head out there."

"Fair enough. So what's our role?"

"When aniki proposed the idea of playing it off as the end-day event, Haruna-anesan came up with the idea that all the mages and guys like you could play the role of the 'Hero Unit' NPCs you find in video games," Chamo grinned, obviously pleased with Haruna's ingenuity. "Doing that allows you to use the fullest of your abilities with no-holds barred, and the high visibility makes it harder for Chao to send assassins to take you out."

Seno grinned and looked over at Motoko. She likewise appeared pleased at that news; she was looking forward to this as much as he was. She'd built up a lot of excitement over the past several days at the festival, and this upcoming combat against a droid army would be a good way to release that pent-up energy.

"That's my kind of action, right there," Seno said.

"This kind of high-profile visual thing, I guess we will need some highly-visible costumes to wear," Motoko mused. She sighed faintly and glanced to her husband. "As much as I hate to, I have no choice but to ask for your assistance."

"It's not a problem," he told her, leaning back in the booth. "I've been putting together a couple costumes for you whenever you finally decided you wanted to come along on a convention tour. I think I can finish one off for the event this afternoon."

---

_Street, World Tree Area  
__The Same Time_

"...And those are the latest details of the revised closing event!" the class representative of 3-A, Ayaka Yukihiro, announced, her voice amplified so that the gathered crowd could hear her words. "We look forward to everyone's participation!"

Yuuna, still in her ODST armor, and Makie, wearing a 'schoolgirl witch' type costume, had been recruited to assist in handing out fliers and gathering attention for the event. Yuuna benefited from being one of the higher-ranked members of Fireteam Charlie, in that her armor featured many of the same communications and functionality upgrades seen in the armor of Lorenzo, Koike, and Katerine. She was making heavy use of the voice amplifier of the helmet.

"Now that we've totally bored you guys to death with the details, let's get to a demonstration!" she said, standing on top of a line of tables on which robes and weapons had been set up. Crates of more of the same were lined up behind the tables. She picked up a set of robes and tossed them to Makie, who obediently donned them. "These are the standard-issue uniforms of the Mahora Mage Knights!" she said, falling back on her not-so-well-known military knowledge to help her impromptu role as public affairs officer. "They're designed to resist impact and ballistics, so you've gotta have 'em on all the time!"

One of her basketball fans from the crowd called out, "Hey, Yuuna-san! What's it mean that they 'resist impacts'?"

She tapped a finger to her chin, then shrugged and said, "Well, from what they told me, you could get hit by a car while you're wearing these robes and come out of it with only bruises." Then she grinned, picked up her helmet and sealed it to her collar, and called out, "Okay, now here's the part that everyone wants to see, a weapons demonstration!"

The crowd cheered exuberantly at her words as she tossed a small microphone to Makie, as well as a star-topped miniature magic wand. People in the crowd began producing cell phones and other normal cameras, recognizing the opportunity for a photo op when they saw one. Makie held the wand over her head so that everyone could get a good look, and said into the microphone, "This is the basic weapon of all Mage Knights, the magic wand! Don't be fooled by the cute and kiddy appearance, because with the proper incantation of a spell..." She cleared her throat, and dutifully recited the word she had been taught by the mysterious people who had delivered the equipment. "_Jaculetur_!"

As she said this, a white beam of energy lanced out of the wand, traveled thirty feet in the linear direction she aimed it toward the sky, and burst in the air like a dazzling display of fireworks. "This light is harmless for now, but it'll blow away the enemy robots no problem!" Makie said, then set down the wand and picked up a large, thin staff nearly as tall as her. "There's also a larger version of the magic wand for you tabletop gamers who like to play as wizards. The mage's staff has greater power and range than the wand, and if you use it in melee and score a critical hit, then it releases a burst of magic energy that hits like a hammer blow."

"So it's like a gravity hammer then, eh?" Yuuna asked, more for the benefit of the crowd. As one of the ones who'd been on hand to accept the delivery of materials, she'd already familiarized herself with all the weapons. "That's cool and all, especially for everyone out there who's played the _Halo 3_ beta like I have, but I prefer something a bit less, well, kiddy. For those of you who think like me, we've got a myriad of _much cooler weapons_ for you to choose from!"

She reached down to the table and picked up a pair of thin, pistol-like weapons from the pile of them on the table, holding them aloft over her head. "For all you gamer girls and the guys who want to look macho in front of them, your first look's gonna want to be right here!" The crowd cheered again, but this time there was a noticeably higher quantity of female voices. "The magic pistol comes in a number of variations, each with differences in ammo capacity, range, and stopping power. They may not be the most powerful weapon in our arsenal, but I'll tell you now that these babies here are going to be the weapon of choice of yours truly!" She gracefully twirled the pistols around her gloved fingers, a move she had practiced to perfection with her airsoft M6D mockups, drawing more cheers from the crowd. "We've got other variants of pistol that seem to function like micro Uzis or grenade pistols, so choose carefully if you're going to cowboy up like Doc Holliday."

It was a calculated misinformation on her part to refer to the dual-wielding of pistols by referencing Doc Holliday. The Old West figure actually known for dual-wielding pistols had been Wild Bill Hickok. She had heard that there would be scoring and prizes during the event, and she intended to enter under the pseudonym 'Wild Bill Akashi.' In order to prevent anyone from stealing her idea, she had intentionally named Doc Holliday rather than the proper figure.

She was glad she'd accidentally forgotten her mockup pistols in her locker at the Fireteam Charlie room in the university ROTC building; it allowed her to holster the magic pistols she'd laid claim to. She couldn't explain or even understand why, but she felt that the two weapons called to her. Shaking off the feeling, she picked up another weapon, a metallic-blue rifle-type that looked like a claw held vertically. Yuuna recognized what it was based off of immediately: the Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle, commonly known as the plasma rifle.

"I think Bungie's got to be bankrolling this one, guys, because here we have the primary assault weapon available to the Mage Knights!" she announced. "Officially recognized as the Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle, you guys might recognize it better as the Covenant plasma rifle! Though, apparently, this is in appearance only, because you get a lot more than two hundred shots per battery, and there's no overheat, meaning you can fire continuously! It's all well and good, of course, if that's your thing, but I'm not interested in using Covie gear."

Setting the plasma rifle-lookalike down, she walked across the surface of the tables, stepping over to where the sniper rifles were stored. Before she could get there, Makie had picked up another weapon and said, "Hey, Yuuna, what about this one!? It looks like one of your Halo guns, too!"

The armored girl looked back to find Makie holding another near-identical knockoff of a Covenant weapon, despite the color being all wrong. "Yeah, hold that one up for everybody to see, Makie-chan!" she answered. "Here you've got the semi-automatic Type-51 Carbine, folks! It fires as fast as you pull the trigger, and features a 3x optical scope to greater accuracy. Let's hope it doesn't fire caseless radioactive slugs the way the Halo carbine does..."

Makie turned a little green as Yuuna said that, and quickly set the weapon back down on the table. Somehow, Yuuna didn't think many people would be taking the carbine as their weapon of choice. Shrugging, she picked up a weapon shaped like a Y with an exceptionally-long stem, and held it up to the crowd. "Headshot honchos and students of the reach-out-and-touch-someone school of thought, this is the weapon for you!" Like the great wave of Kanagawa, the cheers started off in the back of the crowd of spectators and worked their way forward. Yuuna chuckled at this; figures that the snipers would be in the back of the crowd. "This is a replica of the Type-50 Sniper Rifle System! Accurate to a range of 'Helluva lot' and yes, that's a technical term. Take one of these babies, set up in a building with a spotter, and rain terror and plasma-y death down on the droid army!"

Whistles and cheers greeted those words, along with outbursts along the lines of "Bring on those droids!" and "We'll tear 'em apart!"

Yuuna grinned behind the visor of her helmet. Such enthusiasm was a trademark of the students of Mahora Academy. Setting the beam rifle down, she hopped down off the table and walked over to a crate whose labeling indicated it was filled with explosive ordnance. Prying the top of the crate off, she reached in and produced a baseball-sized blue sphere and tossed it up once before catching it. "We've also got some explosive goodies available for use," she said. "Top of the list is this here, what I like to call the blue spider of death! Just arm, throw, and aim at an enemy. If it hits, it sticks! Careful not to hit an ally with one of these; it won't kill 'em, but it'll sting like hell!"

Putting the grenade back into the crate, she picked up a heavy, ornate magical rocket launcher and hefted it onto her shoulder. "And for those guys who really want to blow 'em away, we've got a rocket launcher here for you! Heavy damage and a wide area of effect guarantee multiple kills per shot. That pretty much covers all of the weapons, so now let's move on to support equipment. Hey, Makie-chan, come on over here and help me demonstrate!"

The pink-haired gymnast skipped over, carrying one each of the multiple support equipments that they had available. Yuuna plucked a basketball-sized blue sphere out of the pile and held it up for all to see. "Having confirmed that our enemies are nothing but droid units, this is going to come in extremely handy!" she said. "For those of you who haven't been paying attention to the upcoming _Halo 3_ release, this is a power drainer! In the game, it drains shields and stops vehicles in their tracks, but it'll be hell for the all-mechanical forces of the enemy! Unfortunately, it'll also drain the energy out of our own weapons as well, so don't get caught in the drain radius!"

She then picked up a metal device the length of her arm, with four stubby legs on which to stand and topped with a green diamond. "Next up is a regenerator. Unfortunately, it won't recover us; its only purpose is to serve as portable rechargers for our weapons that way we don't have to rush back to one of the save points to reload."

Setting it down on the table, she grabbed a small grenade-like device with gold markings and grinned, holding it up. "Everyone who's seen the Starry Night _Halo 3_ trailer should recognize this baby! Bubble shield! Stops all forms of fire and attacks, but unfortunately, you can walk right through it." Pressing her thumb down on top of the device, she hurled it to the ground at Makie's feet, and a golden, geodesic sphere of energy rose up around the gymnast. Demonstrating the ability of the shield, she reached her hand through it, then stepped back, drew one of her casters, and fired at Makie's head. The girl inside the shield flinched and ducked instinctively, but as Yuuna knew would happen, the shot was stopped cold by the shield.

"Last but not least, we've got a portable shield thing," Makie joined in, tossing the device in her hand afteractivating it. The seed-shaped device spread open its metallic parts and deployed a shimmering blue shield of energy six feet tall and three wide. "It'll stop incoming enemy fire as long as it's in effect, but it can be overloaded if it takes too many shots."

Switching off her audio enhancers, Yuuna leaned in and said, "It's actually called deployable cover, Makie-chan, but that's fine." She grinned and pulled off her friend's witch hat, then ruffled her hair, and handed her back the hat. Turning the enhancer back on, she called out, "That's it for the weapons and equipment showing, folks! Step right up and sign up and get your weapons and gear! You're allowed to take two weapons, and participation is limited by what we have to hand out!"

Ayaka stepped back in to handle giving administrative and rules details. "This is a competitive and cooperative game based on scoring," she explained. "You score a certain number of points per kill, with the points varying based on the type of opponent you've defeated, with bonus points for headshots. There are point multipliers for multi-kills and sprees, as well as unique kills. You lose points for 'deaths,' that is to say, losing your weapons and armor. The game is based on holding six key Defense Points around the World Tree. They are as follows."

A holographic map of the Mahora area appeared in the air over the table, and as she announced points, they were highlighted on the map. The first that lit up was a spot of light southwest of the world tree. "First and foremost, the World Tree Plaza where you are now standing, designated as Defense Point Alpha. This is the allied main camp, and if we lose this point to the enemy, it's immediate game over."

The crowd began to mumble amongst themselves at that information, the apparent harsh penalties. Sensing that they were becoming restless, Yuuna stepped up and shouted, "Hey, what kind of attitude is that!? If we know that we'll lose if they take the main camp, that just means we have to defend it harder!"

Cheers answered her proclamation; Yuuna was fast becoming a crowd favorite. She grinned under the helmet, then stepped back and waved to the class rep. "Carry on, iincho."

Nodding, a bit flustered that Yuuna was stealing the spotlight, Ayaka continued with her information. The point due south of the World Tree lit up. "Next is the Mahora University Engineering Showcase Hall complex, designated as Defense Point Bravo." The next spot along the equidistant pattern of the magic circle, southeast of the World Tree, lit up. "The area of St. Ursula's All-Girl High School is Defense Point Charlie. Following this, the Tatsumiya Shrine to the northeast is Defense Point Delta. The Viertel Am See Plaza located north of the World Tree is Defense Point Echo."

Yuuna stepped forward again. "Sorry to keep interrupting, iincho, but I just got an alert from my CO." She tapped the side of her helmet. "Fireteam Charlie has requested, and given permission, to use live ammunition in defense against the droid forces at Echo. So, sorry guys, but for safety purposes, only Fireteam Charlie personnel are allowed to take part of the defense at Echo." Sensing the growing displeasure of the crowd, she hastily added, "Don't worry, guys, there'll be plenty of media coverage so you'll get to see all the fireworks!" As expected, that placated the crowd.

A black disc shaped robot had been hovering in the shadows, watching the crowd grow in excitement and number, with the last announcement from the Fireteam Charlie member about Echo being a restricted area, it started to fly off towards Viertel Am See plaza, increasing in speed and altitude.

Ayaka nodded and addressed the crowd, "Very well, that's an amendment to the rules of the event. Any students who enter the area of Defense Point Echo without permission will be immediately disqualified. Continuing on, Defense Point Foxtrot is located at the International High School's central courtyard, northwest of the World Tree. Defense of these bases is critical, and if your position is captured, you'll be out of the game. Located in the exact center of the defense points are a number of tall blue crystals. Touch these to restore your magical ammunition and save your score."

Hiroyuki had been on a nearby rooftop at the edge of the World Tree Plaza when he had received the call from Seno concerning some sort of pre-event plan. "Uh-huh...oh really? Why?.....My that is interesting...Okay so where are we going? Hinata? I think I've been through there before. So do I need to bring anything?.....Really? Kay kay, I'll be over A.S.A.P." finished the emerald eyed fire head, snapping his phone shut.

Getting to his feet after an exaggerated yawn and stretch, the ruby head listened to the closing points of the event speech. "So this event is more than meets the eye," snickered Hiroyuki. "This is gonna be so dam awesome!" His grin spread fully across his face as he attempted to predict the coming event.

His thoughts soon wandered to the subject of him being a chosen hero of the planet. Of course, Hiro maintained utmost confidence that he would be up to the task of saving the world. "Hiroyuki Murakami: Hero of Mahora!" Hiroyuki stated arrogantly, placing his hands on his hips and laughing in a manner he deemed heroic. Beaming happily towards the sky, Hiroyuki slowly reached up and clutched the small pendant that hung from his neck.

The pendant glistened in the day's beautiful light. It's shape was that of a star, and it was crafted of brilliant gold, with a four leaf clover made of radiant emerald in its center. Hiroyuki looked down on it, smirking as he opened it. Inside the words 'You are my lucky star' were engraved.

Hiroyuki clicked the pendant closed and sighed with his small smirk. "I'll make you proud mom, I'll prove you right to everyone." And with that said he raised the pendant to his lips and quickly kissed it. The wild young man scoffed quietly at the crowd below, scanning it for anyone he knew in particular. He happily allowed his smirk to evolve into a wide grin upon locating a target. Hiro began making his way down to the pavement below. "Looks like you couldn't resist the attraction of this event either, Takaki."

Takaki Sato was a thin young man, with neck length dark navy blue hair, curious silver steel eyes, and averaged about 5'6" in height. His skin was quite pale and he had semi-feminine facial features including a small pointed nose and a smooth, rounded chin. He wore a blue tweed beret that slightly resembled an officer hat. His clothes were black custom school design, most common with underclassman high-schoolers. Most people wouldn't think it, but his information acquiring and spying skills were unparalleled among the mundane high school division. Young Takaki Sato has been best friends with the one and only Hiroyuki Murakami since their early childhood.

At the moment, Takaki was carrying his Mages vs. Mars gear away in a box. He had been one of the first few up front who got first choice of weapons and gear. The steel eyed 'Double 0' was inspecting his gear, facing down and not watching his front.

"Walk with your head held high, Takaki," came Hiroyuki's proud voice when Takaki accidentally bumped into him.

In a short lived panic, Takaki dropped his box and waved his arms frantically. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry Hiroyuki-sempai!"

But Hiro shut him down with a slap to the shoulder. "Don't call me 'sempai'! Ditch the honorific and just call me Hiroyuki, or hell you can call me 'bro' if you like," proclaimed the hot-aired spearman.

At this Takaki lowered his head and began to retrieve his belongings. "Uh...um, I don't have any siblings, so that's kind of..."

"It's not about blood! We're soul brothers, siblings of the spirit!" laughed Hiroyuki slapping Takaki once again on the shoulder.

The younger boy winced but Hiro's words erased the small sting of the slap, it was the effect Hiroyuki had on Takaki. Hiroyuki had always had an aura of confidence; a confidence that inspired others like Takaki, who had no confidence or motivation to speak of.

"Nah, I'm just trying to sound cool. Don't call me 'bro,' that'd be kind of weird, right Takaki?" asked the elder Mahoran moving to help his hat wearing friend with his box.

"Heh, it'd be alright to be brothers. We've been friends for so long that it wouldn't be strange," murmured Takaki, mustering a smile of his own.

From there, the unusual duo made their way opposite the crowded plaza, taking a seat on the nearest vacant bench. "So what'cha pick out anyway? Hopefully something cooler than those wands right?" asked the fire head looking into the box for the first time.

The two were nearly complete opposites of one another. Sometimes referred to as 'Fire and Ice' or the more rare 'Heaven and Hell' by some teachers. "Uh, well nothing too special. I got the robes, a power drainer just in case, and the magic pistols," answered the water head lifting and showing the items one at a time. "I was thinking about picking the plasma rifle knock-off cause you know I like SMGs. But I figured pistols would be easier to store and carry."

Hiroyuki chuckled, nodded and stretched. "I figured you'd pick something practical. I mean, there are some whacky ass weapons." He paused briefly as he recalled the correct weapon. "Doesn't the default weapon weapon involve shaking a stick, and yelling the incantation 'Ejaculator' so that the stick can shoot a white magical beam? I swear we Japanese produce the weirdest shit!" laughed Hiroyuki holding back joyful tears.

Takaki soon found himself cracking up side by side with his 'spirit sibling.' The blue haired spy usually had a hard time relaxing around people. Hiroyuki was like a breath of fresh air to Takaki. "It's pronounced 'Jaculetur' idiot! Get it right!" commented the high school junior matter-of-factly. "Only someone like you could think of a stupid joke like that!"

"Ha! You can call it stupid all you want, but you're the chump who laughed at this idiot's joke," retorted the senior with a huff, shoving Takaki over slightly. "So say what you want, but I'd rather be the king of fools than the chieftain of chumps!"

Glancing towards the crowd, the wild child chortled softly at all the hustle and bustle to get to the front. "All that aside though, I have an announcement. So clean your ears and listen up Takaki!" broadcasted Hiroyuki jumping to his feet.

Takaki rolled his eyes, thinking it was probably another one of Hiroyuki's schemes or plans for getting into this year's Comiket. "Well then let's hear it, since you say it as though you want everyone's attention," responded Takaki with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

However, Hiroyuki's expression was that of a blissful child. "I feel totally awesome and it's all thanks to the first day's cosplay contest. I mean, she didn't even mention on the home page that she'd be attending. Ha! I knew it was a good idea to post the contest date and info on the site. But don't you know, she's so much different in the flesh. Oh, but she's so cute that it should be criminal. I'm so happy to be her fan!"

"Okay, who are you talking about?"

"Who the hell do you think I am!? I'm talking about my one true idol C-H-I-U!!! No, I am much more interested in contestant number 18, the girl behind the mask..." Slowly slipping into his own little world, Hiroyuki trailed off wearing a Cheshire grin. To correct that, Takaki improvised as he always did. He proceeded to, quite simply, with a swift and focused stomp to Hiro's foot. "Hey, snap outta it! I'm losin' you!"

Letting out a small cry accompanied by a wince and surprised expression, the day-dreaming spearman rushed back to reality. "Hey, hey, hey, hey! Hiroyuki Murakami is back!" the red head nearly yelled. "What was I talkin' about again?"

The amnesia of Hiroyuki Murakami was short lived. For the beautiful face that had intrigued him for the past two days quickly returned to his thoughts. "Hasegawa Chisame-san, Biblio Roulin Rouge, aaaaand Chiu-sama. She's almost too perfect and adorable for even her number one fan to accept," sighed Hiroyuki blissfully. "Oh, Chisame Hasegawa, her real name is so beautiful."

"Hasegawa-san? that sounds familiar...Wait! Seat number 25, Hasegawa Chisame-san. She's in Natsumi-chan's class, I already memorized her class roster a while ago," nodded Takaki assuringly.

"Yeah, I was gonna tell you but you beat me to the punch. I asked Natsumi yesterday, so that's how I know but I figured you'd remember before I told ya," laughed the young man who seemed to have no other mood than happy. "I first saw her at the cosplay contest, It only took one look, and BAM! I'm totally taken aback. I was all thinking 'Is that really her?' I wasn't sure when I heard her name, but I was sure in the next moment," ranted Hiroyuki like a child with a sugar high. "I saw her looking all sad, and I suddenly wanted to comfort her. I've never had those kind of feelings for anyone but Chiu, so I knew right away. I was the first person to say somthing too, 'cause I was all like 'She's Cute!'. She won because I wished it so. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh and look at what I got!" The smile on the face of the Mahoran native was bigger and brighter than holiday lights as he gestured to the crimson tie bound securely around his left upper arm. "It's the tie from her costume, I snuck backstage and found it with her discarded outfit. I even managed to follow her back to her dorm so I know where she lives. Mind you, I stuck to the rooftops and kept out of sight," Hiro said with half a childish giggle pressing his right index finger to his lips.

Gawking, almost dumbfounded with a stupified expression, Takaki brought his hand smacking into his forehead. "You mean you stalked this girl because you think she's your favorite net idol? I think it's great you've found someone you like but your going about it wrong!"

"Hey, the only reason I followed her home, not stalked, followed was to protect her. There were some damn shady types at that cosplay contest so I followed to make sure she was not stalked. I'm just doing my part as a hero." Hiroyuki threw back in his defense, his expression that of pride as though he had just won an Olympic gold medal.

"Hiro the hero? Yeah, right have you been drinking? Anyway, all following aside, if she's really in Natsumi-chan's class, then she's roughly three to four years younger than you. You have to be breaking at least several laws here. AND you're even holding onto her discarded clothes, you better not get caught," said the truly concerned Takaki.

Totally not even paying attention Hiroyuki checked the time. "Oh, I need to go, it's almost hero time." As the hot headed net idol fan started to leave he turned his head to his younger friend. "Play dirty, not fairly against your enemies! It's gonna be awesome, have fun with your ejaculation guns!" he called out loudly across the crowd to Takaki.

Takaki on the other hand pulled his hat down to hide his embarassed red face. "Stupid Hiroyuki..."

Hiroyuki made his way to his living complex, checking the time once more. It was roughly 12:23pm, Hiro had to hurry to make it in time and he didn't travel light. _Maybe I'll get lucky,_ thought Hiroyuki lifting his left arm and inhaling the lingering scent of the tie's previous wearer. He shuddered slightly as he took in the trace smell of Chiu's perfume. "I'm ready to go!!!"

Yuuna looked away from the gathering crowds. It was mostly just getting everyone signed up and set in their defensive positions, which wasn't anything she needed to be on hand to handle. Besides, she needed to check in with Fireteam Charlie and get her own assignment. She was a member of E Company, Fireteam Charlie's strike infantry division, which put her under the command of acting-Lieutenant Colonel Lorenzo Ruiz. She radioed her commanding officer. "CQ, Akashi. Orders, Colonel?"

---

_Border Between Foxtrot and Echo, Mahora Academy, Japan  
__1214 hours, local time_

The UAV was flying over rooftops in high speed mode, and upon reaching the border between Foxtrot and Echo, was shot down. It crashed atop an apartment building, smoldering, as the assailant, a hooded and robed figure, drew back its weapon, a silenced Fabrique National P90 PDW, and jumped across rooftops to an escape route.

---

_Defense Point Echo Headquarters, Viertel Am See Plaza, Mahora Academy, Japan  
__Same Time_

Many people in Marine or ODST armor had been working since mobilization. Computer generated firing lanes and pre-marked points would turn the front of the plaza into a kill zone. Metal deployable covers, similar to what was seen on Cairo Station in _Halo 2_, with firing slits, had been deployed to make three walled bunkers. Heavy weapons were placed in the buildings on the main routes to the defense point, while any and all secondary routes were filled with sensors and at a point, an automated turret and a small fireteam of four.

The tanks were behind large sandbags and covers, ready to fire, while in the plaza itself, a large Sikorsky skycrane was lowering what appeared to be a large cargo container, something the MMEC had been building alongside the JSDF until funds dried up. Now it'll be used here, thanks to the higher ranks of both the Arlington Magic Society and Mahora agreeing that recent intelligence indicated a brunt of the armies will head straight through what was determined earlier as Echo defense point.

Lorenzo was in the rear command tent of the plaza, covering the numerous LCD screens. A woman in the next tent had a business suit on. One of the Mages from the Arlington Magic Society, she had been applying a nifty spell on the weapons, decreasing their felt recoil and granting the user increased stability and aim. It would help, most of Fireteam Charlie had only been training with paintball guns or airsoft, and very few, namely the prior leadership, had even fired a .22LR weapon.

Right now, he was contacting his current, self appointed Public Relations officer. "Sergeant Major, you're needed here. Our preparations are nearly complete here, and you're to report to your specialist squad," he said, nodding to the five people who were waiting outside. Each had either two SMGs, or two M6D pistols. Only one had a shotgun, a modified version, only keeping the pistol grip and placing a vertical foregrip on the pump action, the bottom of both the pistol and foregrip looked weighted.

"We also need you to look around the planned borders, and making sure barriers are in place as well as the final defensive lines. On the bounce Marine, you have one hour to do all that. I suggest you and your group take a specialist each and check the points. Your designation is now Cleric One, team is designated Cleric, just so we can keep up with you guys. Do you copy, over?"

"_I copy, Control,"_ came Yuuna's voice, distorted slightly over the radio. _"Moving out now. Cleric Team, make your way to Foxtrot and we'll start from there."_

It was then that the UAV was lost.

"Sir, we've lost the UAV we've sent to observe the registration," a technician called out. Lorenzo turned to look at her while she continued on. "Last confirmed location, just outside our border with Foxtrot."

"Command to Cleric One. Hold on...we've just lost a UAV. Carry out your orders. I'll contact you when needed. Your team's frequency is 6F6. It's encrypted up the wazoo, I'll be coming in momentarily while we deal with this. This is Command, Out." He turned to the screen. Other UAV discs had located the one shot down, and yet another was destroyed.

"Full alert, send a fireteam to retrieve those things."

"Anything wrong Lorenzo?" The suited Arlington Magic Society witch had come in.

"Someone's taking out the UAVs we've deployed."

"This is bad...AMS is merely an accessory to your fantasy here, and mainly because Old Man Konoe requested your help in this place. But if the higher ups believe this to be beyond Mahora's or your...group's capabilities, we're sending in people."

"It doesn't have to come to that Maria."

"You're still under watch. Frankly, barely a third of us support you now. Half the department wants you reassigned. We both know which half. So don't fuck up here."

"Yeah...yeah..."

"I'll join one of the teams, they might encounter resistance before the scheduled event."

"Thanks," Lorenzo said, as the woman turned and unholstered two pitch black M1911A1 pistols with extended magazines from a chest rig, engraved with simple silver vine-like design. She got on the same headsets the other people had and got on a Universal Carrier along with 4 other various teens and young adults in Marine armor, heading towards the rear.

---

_Living Room, Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan  
__1322 hours, local time_

Nearly all of the recently-bolstered ranks of the Kuro crew had gathered back at the Hinata in order to prepare the costumes they'd wear during the event and to discuss strategy. A large LCD screen had been rolled in from Kaolla's room, on which various maps and tactical displays of the defense points were displayed. In the bottom left corner of the screen, a live video feed to the Echo command center allowed Lorenzo to be in on the strategy talk.

"...So in all, there are a total of fourteen of us, and six points to defend," Haruka was concluding her thoughts on the matter. "Two each per defense point, then an additional two to put where necessary. Unless there are objections, I will join Lorenzo in defending Echo."

"I guess I could handle, uhh....well, let's just give me Bravo at random," Seno said, though more of his attention was focused on the finishing touches of Motoko's costume, pinning the last bits of fabric in place in preparation to apply heavy-duty thread to allow for strenuous activity without pulling apart the costume.

Motoko, amazed and flabbergasted that her husband knew how to sew, stood on top of a stool wearing the mostly-complete costume, alternatively raising and lowering her arms, turning, or twisting as he directed to ensure that she had full range of motion in the costume. "I'll probably accompany you, then," she said. "Even still, we probably need an actual plan to coordinate the defense, otherwise we might get swamped despite our skill."

Lorenzo appeared once again on the feed. He looked tired, having been in preparation since early morning. A female in a suit was behind him. Her arm in a splint, she had a few bandages and one around her head.

"_Command and Control will most likely fall on Konoemon's group and mine. We're gonna be sharing communications via an encrypted hardline between our command centers. They'll be monitoring our progress. As for defense point command and control, there will be a Fireteam Charlie observer and a protection team disguised as regular participants in the rear. If at best you make sure no droid reach them. They'll be using newer versions of the antiques that was passed out to students earlier."_

He paused a bit, signing something, as people passed by.

"_As I was saying. They'll view the progress in each point. As for our controller, I will be in command of FTC, I'd like you to say hello to Agent Maria Shimizu. She will be in charge of our command team. And magical secrets are fine...the command team consists of Mahorans who are...adept. Haruka, Koike will be briefing you on other stuff. Also, decided to take a leaf outta Rommel. We're turning Viertel Am See into the next Normandy. The long road straight to the plaza is filled with interlocking fields of fire and our tanks are dug in. They're useless in these confined quarters, but as coastal artillery, they fit the bill. We've set automated sentry weapons in forward positions, and it'll basically be a war of attrition going up to the plaza. We'll give it our all. But our ammunition stores are gonna be limited, and by then, we'll be switching to blue mags, which is essentially the same type of beam used by the antique weapons, although that means our ammo shortages are fixed at the expense of not firing real ammo."_

It was shortly after the end of Lorenzo's little speech that Kaolla and Nealla finally wandered down the inside stairs of the Hinata, coming from their own respective rooms. Kaolla was already suited up for Mahorafest, dressed as Samus Aran, the Haloid version. The red, orange and yellow suit was flexible, as proven when she vaulted over the railing, and landed neatly down on one of the couches with a bounce, turning to watch the display.

Nealla however, instead of going with the same costume as her 'twin', as most had expected, was dressed in a rather revealing outfit consisting of a piece of an upper body suit that tapered down like a duster, incredibly short shorts, and faux fur trimmed sleeves that went from just below her shoulders to her wrists.

A pair of 'devil wing' ears adorned the sides of her head, and a red flower on a long stem hung from the corner of her mouth. Her throat was covered by a wide choker with a small bell, and around her waist was a belt with a skeleton head buckle. Long fishnets went all the way up her thighs into the shorts, and boots laced up her ankles to her calves. Her outfit was, in the shortest description, a _Ragnarok Online_ Stalker. At either side were fastened wicked looking scimitars, the blades finely honed and sharp.

"Have we missed much?" This from Nealla, who found herself a seat to perch herself on.

Sabashii wandered in wearing his costume, a perfect replica of Barbossa's uniform and hat from _Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End_, complete with 'scraggly beard.' As the group were talking, the white haired man hopped up on the nearest seat, or whatever would pass as one, and popped his neck from one side to the other, getting the kinks out. He looked over each member of the crew and mused.

"Actually, Motoko, I disagree with you and Seno being a pair. Let me explain. It might be best if we paired with someone who can cover a weakness of the individual that one is paired with. Long range combatants should be paired with a short range or supportive combatant, and multi-range combatants can be used as fire support for those who have limited resources. If there's no objection, I'd like to go with Shinobu. Her support magic will be necessary to supplement my combat skills, as right now I'm operating at about half efficiency. To maintain my speed and power, I'll need her White spells. I'm thinking that Motoko, you and Seno should probably separate; while you're an effective team because you know each other well, having two fighters with the same combat style in a single unit is crippling; it leaves the enemy with two people doing the same thing, meaning if they can counter one, they can counter both."

He looked over the group then, and rubbed his chin with one hand, thinking. He had to come up with feasible and useful combinations quickly. It had been a while since he'd been in a real war effort. Goodness, it felt so nostalgic.

"I know Nealla would normally go with Kaolla, but since there probably won't be any fatalities in this little contest, I doubt it will be necessary. Kaolla, you should probably be with Kitsune. Your ability to run interference and disable machinery will complement well her ability to fight at short range against targets that might otherwise distract you. Nealla, I'm thinking you might be best with Seno. That way there's a martial and a caster. You can run a pure offense team. Motoko, you and Mutsumi can run a support offense-defense team. I don't know what Nanao's combat capabilities are..so for now, I'll say she should go with Naru. Naru can take large amounts of damage. I know how sturdy angels are from experience, especially if they learn how to fully harness their powers."

He paced then, thinking.

"Masaru should go with Hiroyuki. They're a contrast in the harshest sense, meaning what one might not see, the other probably will. That, and Masaru, with his abilities, can cover just about any weakness, and he seems to know Hiroyuki better than the rest of us do, even if that is rather little overall. I'm not sure what Hiroyuki's combat abilities are either... It's why I'm assigning Masaru, who's the all-around five-tool type to that group."

Sabashii nodded, then stroked his Barbossa-beard thoughtfully.

"The rest, if there even is a rest, can pair up as needed or as they want, if I missed anyone. You're welcome to ignore what I've just said, mind you; it's just the ideas I have from personal combat experience. At least we know for sure there aren't going to be any real casualties. It isn't as bad as a full on war. Also, I took the liberty of bringing Masaru and Nanao with me. Aren't portals wonderful? I'm sure Hiroyuki will be here soon enough, if he's not already here."

Of course, about that time, Masaru decided to wander in, in his Papillion outfit, complete with poofy shoulders and butterfly mask. He looked around for a moment...and then spun about once, rather elegantly.

"Papi~yon~"

Nanao, dressed in her female Dante costume, wandered up behind Masaru, giving him a firm thump upside the back of the head. "Didn't I warn you about doing that gay entrance?" A huff of a sigh, before she continued. "My combat whatever is pretty low. I don't fight. I play the guitar. That's what I do. If I have some kind of power, I've got no clue what." She shrugged then. "But, I'm betting its tied to my music, so playing is probably the best thing, huh?"

"_An excellent point from Captain Barbossa. Agent Shimizu also has a report on the earlier disturbance and Echo Point's own Ion cannon. Maria?"_ Lorenzo looked over his shoulder, and moved out of the screen. Just before Maria would move in, he could be seen hunched over, nodding his head and talking to a technician on another control panel. Busy busy.

"_Hello, I am Agent Ruiz's partner. I am not sure if he briefed you on what had gone on, but earlier today, several of our patrolling recon drones had been shot down. We've investigated the matter, and we were shot at by an unknown person or group. Several students have been knocked out."_

She adjusted her square framed glasses, before continuing. _"We've also prepared for the possibility of our defense point falling, at which point any surviving armor and members will be leaving to the nearest defense point as reinforcements and heavy weapons will be assigned when that happens. As for the giant tanks, we've been granted permission to use the ERHA Weapon. If that's all, I look forward to working with all of you."_ She nodded slightly before moving off.

The screen was blank for a bit before the entire thing was hijacked by Fireteam Charlie's line and the ERHA Weapon schematics was shown. The EHRA, or Electromagnetic Rifle - Heavy Artillery was basically a large, 45cm railgun. Four distinct shells were shown, one shell was basically a standard armor-piercing high-explosive shell, the other KESABOT, one pure HE, and the other, was a Particle Beam Generator, a projectile sized and shaped generator 'shell,' it meant to use the electromagnetic field within the rifle to deliver an approximate 40 centimeter beam of charged particles at the target, though at the expense of damaging the rifle and requiring a large cool down period.

The ability for Suu to tab that piece of information meant they were back in control, and Lorenzo was back on the screen. _"She's a beaut, ain't she?"_ he said, not clearly referring to who he considered beautiful, the cannon or Agent Shimizu.

"ORE GA DARE DA TO OMOTE YARU!!!? OH OH OH!!!" came the recognizable passionate cry of Hiroyuki Murakami who came rushing through the open entrance into the main living room. "Nice place you got here," stated Hiro as he inspected what he could see. However, Hiro himself was barely recognizable, and no longer had the obvious casual appearance that resembled _Final Fantasy VII_'s Reno.

Hiroyuki's costume was as barbaric as the young man himself. Sandals occupied the feet of the wild child. Long black wavy slacks made their way down from Hiro's waist to his ankles; they were secured to his waist by an oversized, white belt that knotted into a giant bow in front of him. Sarashi bandages extended up from underneath his slacks to his upper abdomen.

His upper body costume consisted of arm bandages that covered the whole of his forearms. He had artificial tribal tattoo designs painted down his back that ran over his shoulder's to his pectoral muscles. The two single most bold elements of the costume consisted of a high-collared red cape that hung from Hiro's shoulders, with the assistance of two large golden cords. That, and the obnoxiously huge victory shades he adorned on his face. They looked like a giant ten inch red double-u that rested gracefully on his nose.

Hiroyuki's physique complemented the costume and fit well. His hair was also re-done; No longer in a ponytail, the full length crimson hair ran down to his back. The top of his hair changed the most, the entire left side had been slicked back while the entire right side was spiked forward. In the very appearance and attitude he was Kamina from the new show _Gurren Lagann_.

The only things different was that he still had Roulin Rouge's red tie secured around his left arm, he had a pearl-white holster that housed what looked to be a large revolver, and instead of a sword he carried his trusty full length naginata: Yuriko, the lily child. Spear of the house Murakami "I'm not late! So what's the plan? We gonna crash these tin-can bozoes or what!?"

"You're just in time," Haruka told the Mahoran as the rest of the crew were still going about deciding who would be paired with whom. "We'll be splitting up into two-man teams and sending each team to defend one base. The teams are being decided based on complimentary skill-sets. Since you're late, we decided to pair you with Masaru. You can get another partner if you don't want to work with him. It's up to you."

"Whaaaaaaat? I'm stuck with the cryptic-spouting, tight-wearing, know-it-all butterfly!?" questioned Hiroyuki as though deeply insulted. "Eh, I've played co-op with worse I suppose," he stated losing his insulted expression as fast as it came. Hiroyuki turned to Masaru. "I guess I'll see what you're really made of, unlike at the preliminaries. Let's hope your luck can keep up with mine!" laughed Hiro as he donned his usual arrogant smirk.

Masaru just smirked as he looked over at Hiroyuki, the butterfly mask concealed his features magnificently, and the uniform showed off all of his... bursting health, as it were. He closed his eyes then, and a pair of black butterfly wings made of powder burst from his back, floating to themselves, though they faded quickly.

"My Near Death Happiness will prove in this battle that I have more than enough of what it takes to be a superhuman. I wonder if the same can be said of you... You know, you're certainly different enough from me to be a sort of foil yourself. And how convenient for you that you happen to use a lance-type weapon."

He grinned then, naturally commenting on the rivalry between Kazuki and Chouno in _Busou Renkin_, and how Kazuki's weapon was a lance. Still, he chuckled and pulled the mask off, and looked over at the gathering. "The truth is, this will be a chance to show off some other things I can do; I was in good form in the last fight, but I also wasn't sure of what I was fighting at first. That was problematic. This time I'm more than prepared."

Hiroyuki merely scoffed at Masaru's remark and smirked on seeing the powdered wings. "It doesn't matter if you're superhuman or not, with enough tenacity any mortal can beat the unbeatable!" chuckled Hiro as he removed his shades and placed Yuriko against the wall. "I like unusual tag-teams, cover your own ass and don't you dare worry about me. Perfect Unison of Masculine Souls, Cannonball Attack!" yelled Hiroyuki with a tone that screamed confidence and passion, throwing the enveloping crimson cloak over his shoulders and crossing his arms.

"So it's me and Nealla to Bravo, then," Seno said, finishing the last touches on Motoko's costume, giving a tug to the skirt hem to ensure that it was secure. "Okay, all done."

She was clad in a sleeveless yukata that varied color from the top to the bottom from an extremely light, almost lavendar, blue at the top to dark ocean blue at the bottom. Over this she wore a black leather breastplate of the kind typically seen in the Sengoku period, and the costume was topped off with a black cape with a rich blue hem draped over her shoulders. She smiled faintly as she made a few experimental turns and arm movements in the costume; it was very well-fitting and still allowed perfect freedom of movement.

"Okay, who is she?" Naru asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked over the costume. It was familiar, but she couldn't exactly place it.

"Well, Sabashii said it," Seno answered, chuckling. He shrugged and pointed to the white-haired man. "You know, Azumi."

Nealla made a faint gesture, and the cape Motoko wore was bathed with a soft white light, before suddenly glowing blue as Nealla snapped, the light then fading away. "There. Now Motoko's cape can stay just as clean as Azumi's did." A wry smile crossed her face, and she nodded to Seno.

"Just remember, friendly fire from me is literal, so make sure you maintain a certain distance so I don't have to worry about accidentally setting off a fireball on top of your head. Not all of my spells are capable of avoiding friendly units. I'm going to have to be careful of them, but I think I'll need some of them."

Kaolla was operating the screen, putting up chibi images of each of the crew based on where they had decided to station themselves. Chibis of Seno and Nealla were attached to Bravo, Lorenzo's at Echo. The princess looked back and said, "You know, I think it'd work better if Kitsune and Mutsumi were made as mobile units. Because Kitsune, if her skill set keeps to what we know from _Final Fantasy X_, can steal critical parts to destroy the droids, and with her rapid speed, she could be a high-mobility attack support. Mutsumi would be better served, also, as mobile support to go where needed." She stuck her finger in her mouth and thought for a moment. "I think that Haruka should also partner with Naru."

"Good idea, Kaolla," Mutsumi smiled, clapping her hands together. "I'll go along with that plan."

"Me, too, I like that idea," Kitsune agreed.

"Sure, that works," Haruka said. "I heard that they're setting up a command and control sector in Charlie, so Naru and I will take over that one."

Kaolla nodded and added the chibi's to the board. Naru and Haruka's chibis were attached to Charlie, and Mutsumi and Kitsune's were just placed in the center.

Motoko raised an eyebrow. "Kaolla, that leaves you and I without partners," she said. "We're to team up, then?"

"Yup, yup!" the girl enthused. "We can take Foxtrot, if that's okay with you."

The Shinmei heiress nodded. "That will be fine."

Nanao from her position, tipped her head slightly. "I think I should be wherever the combat is going to be light, or nonexistent. If Masaru's right, and all my abilities are tied to my song, I need to be able to broadcast it to everyone for them to benefit from it. And not be interrupted. If I get hurt and can't sing, I can't support people." She folded her arms across her chest and studied the map for a few minutes. "Not to Halo-ify things on everyone, but I guess consider me the flag carrier. Don't let me get stopped, essentially."

Lorenzo chimed in, he's been on top of things in his end, and he's been shouting orders when off screen. _"If you want, I can give you a protection team miss. Their job'll be to shoot anything that comes near you. As for this layout, seems good. Echo can hold its own for a bit."_

"A protection team works, so long as I can stay out of the fray and keep focused on playing. Since it doesn't matter what song I sing, does anyone have a request?" Nanao would turn and face the group then. She'd let one of them decide on the song, she was happy to play whatever was chosen.

"My first inclination is to get some Dragonforce going on, but that's just me," Seno said, now starting to pull on pieces of his own costume. It seemed to consist primarily of Sengoku-era steel plate armor, green and black plates of a certain kind, hmm...

Motoko rolled her eyes and turned with a flourish of her cape. "Since we're talking so much about Final Fantasy, how about _Otherworld_?"

Kitsune and Shinobu gave her an odd look. She blinked at them and turned away slightly, blushing. "What? I can play video games, too..."

"As long as it isn't the Black Mages cover. Great song, baaaad singer." Nanao chuckled, and simply smiled at the swordswoman. "Thanks Motoko-chan. That'll work perfectly."

Lorenzo chuckled, well, it looked like his first real laugh since he was uncovered. _"Protection team will be meeting you guys at Mickey D's. And as for DragonForce, Seno...Echo Point will be blaring that just to piss you off now."_ He smiled, as a technician started to play some of the songs, and lots of yelling and enthusiastic noises came from outside.

"I got song request Nano-chan, how about 'Happily Ever After' from _Gurren Lagann_, it's by Nakagawa Shouko. Or 'Sora-iro Deizu,' both're done by the same person." The cape-wearing spearman shrugged and turned his attention to the strategic display.

"I'm okay with being teamed up with a fellow Mahoran, seeing as there's no one else to team up with. And I keep hearing about these abilities, that Nanao seems to be talkin' about. How do we go about acquiring said abilities?" questioned Hiroyuki as he scratched as chin, wondering how interesting this would truly turn out.

"Each of us is born with them," Mutsumi answered as she wandered out of the room she had been changing in, wearing a pink sundress with a red vest over it, her hair styled into a braid tied with a pink ribbon and adorned with a green marble. "Though they likely do not awaken in an individual until they, themselves are awakened." She observed the naginata that Hiroyuki carried. "Since you wield a spear-type weapon, I believe it's safe to surmise that your class is that of a 'dragoon' and that you'd have similar abilities as them. I really can't say what each person's abilities are."

She crossed the room to where she had leaned her Princess Guard staff against the wall, and picked the weapon up, manipulating it to reduce it to its smaller size. "Hmm, even in its reduced size, it's rather unwieldy to carry this weapon as is. If only I had some sort of storage device..."

A gentleman in what looked like Renaissance clothing and a beret, with short hair and a box mustache, wandered through just then, his hands set upon a cart. It looked almost like a food cart, but it had a slight... aura about it. Sure enough, he stopped near the group and tapped the cart's top, and it sprung into a full blown shop, full of dubious looking bottles, bags, and glass cases that carried other weird looking objects.

"Perhaps, my generously-busomed lady, I can offer these to you; bags, backpacks, and other objects that can hold large objects of any sort up to a certain weight. In fact, with any purchase today I'll throw one in as a free sample. I'm cuttin' me own throat, I tell you, but you can't beat a deal like that."

Seconds later, Hiro jumped at the sight of the mysterious peddler. "What the!? Do traveling traders normally come through here unannounced through the open door?"

"What's with this guy?" Seno asked, struggling to attach a set of underarm buckles between his chestplate and backplate. "Coming in here trying to peddle some random crap to us."

"Here," Motoko said, crossing over to help her husband secure his costume.

Mutsumi carefully scrutinized the 'merchant' then said, "Actually, this fellow is a known dealer in magic items. I imagine that he could be quite useful to us." She inspected some of his wares, then said, "Shinobu, he has a lovely set of war fans here that would go greatly with your costume."

The domestic engineer, wearing a sky blue Chinese dress with a train reaching nearly to her feet, walked over and inspected the pair of Japanese fans that matched her costume almost perfectly in color. "Oh, it would definitely save me from having to use pans..."

"What currency are you accepting now?" Mutsumi asked.

"Actually, what I'm accepting now is 'credit'. So far, you fellows have been doing a great deal of fighting. With each victory, or semi-victory, you earn a sort of 'heroic credit'. Others may not see what you do, but the planet knows, and that means I know and can translate that energy you've spent into a tangible form. The more you fight for your cause, the more 'energy' you accumulate at the planet's will. I will translate what you have gained so far. Remember that this account, of sorts, extends to the entire group, so you must divide and use it wisely. Individual achievements will grant personal gain as well but as a whole, the majority will be a group thing. It's like turning your gamer score into spendable gold. I got tired of dealing in currency many incarnations ago."

The man smiled then, and looked over a meter. He handed Seno the meter, which appeared to be much like a pager. The pager had a number on it; 18,785. This appeared next to the word 'Party'. The following were shown if Seno deigned to pressed the small forward arrow button.

Haruka: 4,468  
Lorenzo: 4,175  
Seno: 8,790  
Motoko: 8,180  
Kaolla: 6,330  
Nealla: 4,106  
Shinobu: 7,009  
Masaru: 3,300  
Hiroyuki: 3,000  
Evangeline: -ERROR-  
Mutsumi: 8,986  
Kitsune: 6,133  
Keitaro: 4,405  
Seta: 6,941  
Naru: 9,001  
Tama: 4,675  
????: -SEALED-  
????: -SEALED-  
????: -SEALED-  
????: -SEALED-

"Now. Tell me what it is you like, and I will endeavor to give it to you, if you have enough. The warfans you are looking at will enhance your combat speed and enhance your healing abilities. If you hold them when you cast healing spells, there will be an increase. They're called White Fans. They're 2,500. And of course, if you purchase them, you'll get a bag."

Shinobu looked at the accrued credits under her name, then again at the fans. Within her range of cost and beneficial to her white magic. Not to mention they fit her costume. She looked up at the merchant and nodded. "Okay, I'll take them."

Moving with the others closer to the cart, Hiroyuki inspected the cart. "You got a surplus on ammunition or something small that carries a crap-load of ammo?" Asked the man nonchalantly, placing his right hand on the pearl white holster at his waist. "I'm using live ammunition, revolver rounds, anything from .45 to .50 will fit into the Shooting Star." Already past the fact that the merchant came out of nowhere in response to Mutsumi's comment, he was kind of an idiot in that sense; he tended to assimilate abnormal things too quickly into his own life. He turned to the rest of the Kuro crew putting up his hand to reassure the others. "Don't try to stop me from using live ammo, I never miss my target ever...I'm lucky; and a very, very lucky shot."

The merchant turned his head to the young one then, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ammunition? I don't carry a lot of magical ammunition. But, I can add effects to your actual guns so the ammunition will take on its properties. Depending on what you want, depends on the cost. Other than that, I have a box that can produce mundane, normal ammunition of any gun type infinitely for 2,700. And of course, you'd get a free bag."

"Hmmm a tempting deal, saves me a lot of actual hard cash. It produces whatever mundane bullets I need of an unlimited quantity right? That means Shooting Star will be spitting nothin' but 50s at those tin cans," Hiroyuki said, grinning deviously. "I doubt those clankers will stand up to that penetrating power."

Then for no apparent reason, the vivacious young man suddenly moved, swifter than seen before. In one movement that matched the blink of an eye, he unbuckled his hostler and drew his pistol, pointing it forward towards the cart.

The Shooting Star was a fine specimen of a revolver pistol. No, not a pistol, a miniature hand cannon. Extending roughly eleven inches in length, and expanding a whole inch and a half in width. With the barrels themselves stretching only about an inch or so. Forged of first-rate silver, with a handle grip of red oak. The peculiar stacked double barreled design, that was accentuated by the blue and gold swirl patterns on the two barrels. Even from the exterior one could tell the ammunition cylinder had been modified to hold twelve stacked rounds instead of the more usual six single rounds.

Hiroyuki smirked, before slowly aiming the pistol at the salesman. He brought the revolver up higher with his wrists angled toward the ceiling, looking as though he fired an invisible and silent shot. "Bang!" The whisper that escaped Hiro's lips was his very answer. "Sure, I'll take it, I'll take the bullet spawning box. Though I need to do something today about having the lowest score in the crew. It's embarrassing ya know?"

"It's only because you just joined the group recently and haven't had any major battles. It will climb. The planet is watching. Very well, done. This box is special. When worn on a belt or holster, it will reload your guns without you having to do so yourself, and will produce the ammunition you need provided it has no special qualities. I have a much stronger version, but it is beyond you just yet, in terms of cost, that produces bullets of unusual material."

He would produce the box, as promised, and also as promised, he produced the bag that would hold lots of things. It was a holding bag; it would hold about 200 pounds of material, and never weigh more than about five pounds. The meter would show that the necessary 'hero credits' were removed.

"Excellent choice."

With a flick of his wrist, Hiroyuki twirled the pistol on his index finger before dropping it vertically into the holster. He then buckled it secure in a snappy fashion. Wearing the smile he always did, Hiroyuki retrieved box the box and the bag from the mysterious man. "Thank you kindly, pleasure doing business. I'll be sure to take advantage of your bargains once again. Right after I go kick some ass!"

Hiroyuki then secured the box to the side of the holster, or he tried to. As if already knowing what he wished, it attached itself to white holster with small Shzooop sound. The small black box even went so far as to change it's own color to match that of the holster's white shading. As for the holding bag, Hiro had no real use of it at the moment so he stuffed it way in his trouser pockets.

The rest of the crew likewise gathered. Haruka looked over the wares, a good point brought forth by Hiroyuki. She was currently operating a 9mm Beretta 93, and that caliber ammunition lacked the penetration power to harm an armored droid. She'd need something with a heavier punch. "I think I'm in the market for a weapon upgrade as well."

Naru wandered down from upstairs, fully clad in her costume, which consisted of a black shirt and shorts, a blue duster with a white angel wing motif on her back, and matching blue arm warmers. "What's going on, guys?"

"Apparently we got us some kinda group merchant sellin' us stuff now," Kitsune answered, looking back at her friend. She drew the daggers that Kaolla had given her for the fight against the Mahorans, which she'd been using since. They were wickedly-curved blades the length of her forearm that had similar high-frequency technology as seen in New Goblin's sword from _Spiderman 3_. "These babies are top of the line for me, so I don't need no weapon buyups. Dunno what I'd need."

The angelic woman scratched her head. "I create my own weapons, so I don't know what I'd need, either."

Seno remembered something he'd said the other day at the tournament preliminaries and grinned. "You wouldn't happen to have Bracers of Suzaku, would you? That aside, just the bag of holding would be fine for me. Helps when I need to be a little more discreet in my carry and conceal."

"I...do not know if there's anything I would need," Motoko said slowly, scratching her head.

---

_World Tree Plaza: Defense Point Alpha, Mahora Academy, Japan  
__1722 hours, local time_

Setsuna stood on a balcony overlooking the World Tree Plaza, her sharp sight taking in the hasty preparations of the student defense forces. Most had gathered into large groups, apparently intent on taking the droids on American Revolution-style, while others were wisely seeking cover and defensive positions. None of the 'Hero Unit' mages were on the scene yet, nor were the members of the Kuro crew; most of the mages were still making preparations, and if she knew her sister and brother-in-law's group, they'd wait to make a fashionably-late entrance.

Haruna had suggested that her maid outfit from the Budokai make a return today, but seeing Asuna's armored costume, as well as knowing that _aneue_ would be here as well, she had decided upon a style of clothing she had not worn since before she had been taken in by her foster family. She'd been attired in it in her mind's eye during her illusory battle with Evangeline, but she had not actually worn the style of her original father's tribe in many years.

It hadn't been difficult to modify an extra set of her Shinmeiryu clothing appropriately; she had removed the sleeves of her gi, cut the sleeves' length down, and then attached the sleeves to gold circlets she wore halfway up her upper arms. Her forearms and hands were protected by golden bracers that were sturdy enough to stop a sword strike. The hakama was left unchanged as all she had to do was wear a men's hakama; in Shinmeiryu, women wore red hakama, men wore dark blue.

In years past, she'd always been uncomfortable at any mention of her mixed heritage, including the clothing of her father's tribe. The outfit she wore was cut in the style of the tribe, and the circlet and bracers once belonged to her father, but she no longer felt the unease she'd associated with it. The accessories of her father had blended with her upbringing in Shinmeiryu to become her own unique style. She smiled faintly, taking in a deep breath of the magically-charged air.

Negi's familiar, the magical ermine Chamo, was scurrying back and forth across the railing before her. "If Chao cancels her plans because of our defense force, then we win," he was explaining. "The event will be one hell of a bomb, though. Too bad..."

"Perhaps she'll attempt to trick us and delay her plan a bit?" Setsuna asked, reaching up and removing the band keeping her hair up in her traditional side ponytail, then brushed her hand through her hair to let it fall free.

"That's not going to happen," the ermine responded, grinding out the cigarette he was smoking in an ash tray he'd produced from nowhere; there were already several other stubs in it. "A large-scale spell like the one she's planning to cast over the entire world takes time to invoke. Magic of this scale relies on resonation with the twelve major holy locations in the world. By nine tonight, they'll be out of alignment. She can delay up to an hour, maybe."

Another thought came to Setsuna, one that gave her chills. "Then how about moving up her plans and attacking early to catch us off-guard?"

The way that Chamo froze in place indicated that that thought hadn't occurred to him. "Uh...That is actually a real possibility. Perhaps you should wake up aniki early."

Nodding, Setsuna reached into her gi for her cell phone; she'd used some of the extra fabric from the sleeves to sew an inside pocket to hold just those kinds of items. She dialed Negi's number, and found herself immediately met with static. Frowning slightly, she disconnected and tried Asuna's number, to the same result. Feeling Chamo's gaze on her, she explained, "Phone's not working," as she switched the cell for her pactio card, proof of the contract that Konoka had been forced to forge with her in Kyoto in order to save her life. She placed the card to her forehead and attempted to contact her friend, partner, and mission objective. Nothing. Growing increasingly frantic, she put away the card and rested her hand on _Yuunagi_'s hilt. "Neither do the cards."

Chamo broke out into a cold sweat as this news sank in. When he spoke, it was in a voice full of dread, "A communications blackout can mean only one thing..."

"Invasion," Setsuna finished, lowering her head slightly, a hard edge in her gaze.

---

_Command Center, Echo Base  
__1720 hours, local time_

The command center was a large, modernized Nissen hut. Made of tougher material, it had a more blocky, easily deployable feel to it. Work stations lined the walls, allowing people to move easily in the center. Lorenzo came in, having last inspected everything.

A prominent LCD clock on the wall above the command map of the Echo defense area counted down the hours, minutes, and seconds remaining until the resonation period with the holy lands, Chao's window of opportunity for casting the spell, ended.

Lorenzo had just finished talking with Maria in the back, talking about the battle. He was chewing on a pen when he came back in after inspecting the place, his vest slightly ruffled and his hair a little bit too unkempt. He looked slightly out of breath and dizzy.

Oil splotches covered parts of his uniform, having to help fix one of the forward Centurion's main transmission. He had run in full gear, well, run trying to put his gear on, back up to the command center. The pen fulfilled his need for something to chew on to keep his shakes under control.

"Oi..." He motioned to an aide. "Centurion 3 is immobile, it can move its main gun, but we may have to abandon it instead of it retreating to the third defense point. Just saw the damage, spent 10 minutes trying to help but we just got covered in oil. Stupid British tanks."

Amongst the row of monitoring stations set to watch the battlefield via radar, infrared, and closed-circuit television, a technician adjusted several dials, then called out, "Colonel, we've lost contact with our drones in Sector Four." That meant the drones that had been deployed in the lake to detect the rumored underwater attack had likely been destroyed. "They transmitted this image before we lost them."

The technician flipped a switch, and his monitor displayed a hazy, watery video loop of a large dark mass moving along the bottom of the lake perpendicular to the image's point of view. At the near edges of the mass, faint humanoid shapes were visible. A beam went out, before the sensitive and highly engineered drone went off the air. The video looped again, as the technician cleared up the video, and sure enough, the silhouette of the humanoid shapes slightly matched that of the bot from the tournament.

"Oh...Sound the alarm," Lorenzo said, as he pulled the slide on his pistols and deactivated the manual safeties. Maria arrived, ready to take over. Everywhere, people were hunkering down, hidden in the buildings, hidden in bunkers, loading their weapons. Lorenzo strolled out of the command room, and hopped on the back of a transport hog, converted into a fully enclosed command vehicle. He and his escort took to the front, where the third line of defense was located, two tanks on either side.

Getting up from a hatch, he looked around him. People were tense, ready to shoot. Nodding to an aide inside the vehicle, he got on the main communications channel, which had stayed quiet for his orders. "Alright boys, listen up. Take careful aim. Remember; aim small, miss small. Small arms, handle anything that moves fast. Heavy shit, slow stuff. Machine guns, short bursts, and make sure you hit an enemy. Once you're all out of ammunition, use the blue magazines, they refresh every time you put them back in their mag pouches, and you don't have to say anything to shoot it.

"Now, Defend Echo and destroy the enemy!!! Fireteam Charlie, MOVE OUT!!!!"

He lowered himself into the main command section, closing the hatch as he did. The channel was strong enough to break through the interference, but people can still be heard, squad leaders instructing their men and such. The Warthog went back to the fifth defense line.

They waited...many were nervous... But none but the best were in the first defense line, all the MG positions there were automated and slaved to several observers, who gathered information in concealed spots and closed-circuit television feeds.

---

_World Tree Plaza Central Defense Area: "Allied Main Camp"  
__1724 hours, local time_

Kazumi Asakura hated being unprepared. She knew Chao was planning her magic revelation for tonight; that information had been her fee for serving as the master of ceremonies for the tournament. She had expected Negi and his group to try to fight off Chao's army on their own, a beautiful and yet tragically-futile battle. To that end, she had brought along her personal video camera to observe and record the battle, which she had expected to be a furious defense at the World Tree.

She had _not_ expected that someone in Negi's group would concoct a plan of this scale in order to stop Chao. Utilizing the student body as a defense army? Priceless! With this, Negi now had enough forces available to theoretically stop the droid army at every defense point. Unfortunately, Kazumi had no way of covering the entirety of the event, so she'd grudgingly decided that she'd continue with her original plan to record the fighting at the World Tree.

"It totally sucks that I'm going to miss out on the action everywhere else," Kazumi muttered as she panned her recording camera across the plaza. Her viewfinder fell on Yuuna in her ODST armor directing defenses; she wouldn't have known that it was her classmate underneath the black armor if not for the white-stenciled 'AKASHI' on her helmet.

"Maybe you can make up for it by recording it documentary-style?" a seemingly-disembodied voice asked from over Kazumi's left shoulder. The voice actually belonged to 3-A's resident ghost, Sayo Aisaka, who regularly 'haunted' Kazumi, being one of the few people who could see her.

"Yeah, I guess I could do that," Kazumi answered. Pausing the recording, she walked over to where the basketball ace was directing her troops and called out, "Oi, Yuuna-san!"

The helmeted head with its deep blue, almost black, opaque visor turned toward her. "Hey, Asakura-san!" the armored figure cheerfully greeted, destroying its militaristic appearance by adding a cheerful wave. "What's up?" She pointed to the camera in Kazumi's hand. "Going to do your reporter stuff instead of play along?"

Kazumi grinned and hefted the camera. "You know it! Though it'd be nice if I could play and report at the same time, you know?"

"Yeah, I hear you," Yuuna answered, then looked to the side and called out, "No, you're too exposed right there! You'll be drawing a lot of hate with your rockets, so you're going to need better cover!"

Following the armored girl's pointing, Kazumi watched a pair of robe-clad students, one toting the magical rocket launcher, nod and move out of the meager cover afforded by the upper plaza's wall and head toward a nearby building. She turned back to her classmate. "Heh, hard work being a commander, huh?"

Yuuna shrugged. "I'm used to it, though. Being top NCO in Fireteam Charlie means I get a lot of squad leader assignments." She waved over another ODST, male by his build and height, whose helmet was stenciled 'HARTLEY.' "How's it look, private?"

"Not bad, SarMaj," he answered, lifting the visor of his helmet, revealing an average-looking university-level student, and taking a drink from a canteen on his belt, painted black to match the rest of his uniform. "We're about sixty percent set up here, with the numbers going up heading down toward the beach."

Yuuna nodded her head. Five different defense lines had been set up at Defense Point Alpha, ranging from the first down at the lakeshore, the second on the raised road that ran along the beach, and moving from there, up to the last line of defense, where they currently were. "Take the 'Hog, gather up the squad, then set up sniper positions at the third line. We're _not_ supposed to be using live rounds here so make sure you hit what you aim at. We don't need anybody getting booted for betrayal."

Hartley chuckled, then nodded and lowered his visor. "On it, ma'am," he said, then headed off.

Kazumi looked at her classmate as though she'd grown a second head. "Wow, never saw this side of you before, Yuuna-san," she said.

The basketball gamer shrugged. "Just goes to show nobody really pays that much attention to me since I wear this stuff all the time outside of class," she answered, her voice sounding somber. Kazumi couldn't read her expression through the visor.

"That just means I'll get the exclusive scoop!" the reporter grinned, trying to infect her normally-cheerful classmate with good humor. "Got a proposal here for you, Yuuna-san. Since I'll only be able to film in this area, I thought that I'd do a sort of documentary thing, which generally means I'd need a subject to follow. How 'bout it? Want to be it?"

"Think you can keep up with me?" Yuuna asked, and Kazumi knew she was grinning. Her competitive spirit was firing up.

"You're on!" Kazumi said, then brought up her camera. "Come on, I've got an idea of how to introduce it, too."

The two girls headed for the fountain at the center of the plaza, from atop the railing of which Kazumi had a commanding view of the defense preparations. She started recording and began to pan slowly across the work of the student defenders, and as she did, she began to speak in her documentary voice, loud enough for the recorder to pick up. "At the 78th annual Mahorafest, the evil genius Chao Lingshen unleashed a massive army of droids in support of her plans to reveal the existence of magic to the world. In response, Negi Springfield, the son of the Thousand Master, revealed his own strategy to employ the students of Mahora Academy as a defense force against Chao's droids. Among these defenders is the basketball star of Class 3-A, Akashi Yuuna."

As Kazumi gave her dialogue, Yuuna felt reminded of the stage introductions of a game she'd played once, _Samurai Warriors 2_. Grinning, she decided that she'd play up the resemblance. With the reporter beginning to pan toward her, she popped off her helmet and set it at her feet, then struck a pose with the magic casters, holding one out before her as though targeting an enemy, the other held pointing up toward the sky behind her head.

As expected, Kazumi began to pan up her body from her knees, slowly rising toward her face. Putting on a game grin, she gave her lines, "I'll blow those droids to pieces and score the top prize! Chapter One: Defense of the World Tree Plaza. I'll defend Mahora until the day I die!"

Kazumi paused the camera, grinning from ear to ear. "That was great, Yuuna-san! This is going to be a great documentary!"

"Heh, heh, liked that, didja?" Yuuna asked, likewise grinning, as she holstered the magic casters and leaned down to pick her helmet back up. "I thought it was a nice touch. I'm going to go grab a bite to eat real fast. Haven't had anything all day."

Kazumi nodded. "Right, I'll meet you back here." As Yuuna headed off, a device that Kazumi carried in her pocket began to vibrate. She furrowed her eyebrows, wondering why that was going off. Heading away from the crowd, she stepped between two buildings and pulled out a small circular device, then pressed her thumb down on the center of it and held it in the palm of her hand.

Chao Lingshen's head and shoulders appeared in a column of washed-out blue light above the device. It was a real time holographic communication device, like something out of _Star Wars_, that the Chinese girl had provided in the event that she needed to contact Kazumi. _"Asakura-san, in light of the recent events, I'm having a little present delivered to you as payment in advance for another service for me."_

"Our deal was to serve as your MC at the tournament and nothing else," Kazumi answered shrewdly.

"_I am altering the deal,"_ Chao said in a threatening tone, but then it was gone, replaced with a happy smile. _"But this totally isn't _The Empire Strikes Back_, so I'm not going to pull a Vader and go 'Pray I do not alter it further.' I just want you to do some more of your fine MC work. This present will assist you greatly in that endeavor. It should be arriving right about...now."_

The heavy roar of engines drew Kazumi's attention out to the plaza, where she could see a stubby-winged transport aircraft with four thrust-vectoring engine nacelles, two mounted in the wing roots, two more near the tail. Kazumi was flabbergasted when she recognized that it was a fully-functional Halo-style Pelican dropship. It came to a hover over the plaza, dangling a metallic blue-colored platform with four curved metallic posts from its magnetic tail hook that, when compared to the UNSC vehicle carrying it, appeared Covenant in design. Coming to a hover ten feet above the plaza, the Pelican deployed the platform, then immediately rose and banked away.

The platform hit the ground with a thump that was drowned by the noise of the defenders readying for battle. She faintly heard a quartet of heavier thumps and the sound of concrete splintering, reasoning that what she was hearing was the platform securing itself. Once that was finished, a faint blue shimmer of energy wrapped around the platform from post to post.

"_Ah, I can hear the Pelican, so it must have just arrived. What you're looking at is a high-tech holographic information station. The sounds you heard when it secured itself to the ground were also it tapping into the electrical and television grids running beneath the plaza. That shimmer is an energy barrier that bars entry; it's programmed to let you pass._

"_I've taken the liberty of installing twenty-four advanced camera drones around the six 'defense areas.' The platform allows you to access the images, video, and audio, as well as record and playback. Through the television linkup, you'll be broadcasting live to every television in Japan and select locations worldwide. I want you to do your best in covering this event, Asakura-san; the world is quite literally watching."_

Kazumi's mouth went dry as Chao told her this. She would be broadcasting to all of Japan and much of the world as well? It was a dream come true for her. This was the story of her life. The holocommunicator in her hand went dark and silent, and she returned it to her pocket, then approached the telecommunications platform.

As she neared, the energy field grew more and more opaque, barring access as Chao had said. Then a faint blue beam swept over her from atop one of the posts, and a feminine voice said, _"Detected biopattern: Asakura. DNA variations within acceptable parameters for ancestor of Asakura, Private Satoshi."_ There was a pause that left Kazumi wondering what the hell it was talking about. _"Asakura, Kazumi, registered. Authorized user status confirmed. Access granted."_

The energy field blinked out. Cautiously, Kazumi stepped onto the platform, and when she was met with no blast of electricity or something like that, she confidently stepped up to the control panel, shadowed by a visibly-nervous Sayo. Idly, Kazumi wondered if the machine had been programmed to accept Sayo, but it was just as likely that it didn't even detect her otherworldly presence.

"_Uplinking to target site observation drones,"_ the machine reported. _"Link achieved to television networks. Awaiting takeover command."_

Two individual rows of a dozen partially-translucent screens the size of an average notebook appeared in the air surrounding her. The rows began to rotate in opposite directions around her, the top row toward her left, the bottom row toward her right. One by one, each screen came online, until a total of twenty four views of all six defense points were displayed.

"Wow, this is so cool!" Sayo exclaimed, floating around the circle in synch with the monitor showing a number of students using the torii gates outside the Tatsumiya Shrine for cover. The gates were the third of Tatsumiya's five defense lines.

Kazumi nodded. "With the real-time video and all the other stuff I can do from here, she definitely wants to make sure I've got the tools to fully-document this, win or lose, it seems."

Idly, she reached a hand out to touch the screen displaying the first defense line at the World Tree's lakeshore. The wall of images reacted; the touched screen grew to the approximate size of a car windshield as the other twenty-three screens in the double-rows shrank to the size of playing cards that rotated around her knees. Audio began streaming from speakers hidden in the curved poles.

The image was focused on the cheerleader trio, Madoka Kugimiya, Sakurako Shiina, and Misa Kaziaki, as they moved toward a cafe set up on the beach from which Madoka could use the beam sniper rifle she had picked up at random. Sakurako and Misa were equipped with a rocket launcher and a staff, respectively. They were Madoka's spotters and protection.

"_If our defense point is the World Tree Plaza, then why are we setting up down here at the lake?"_ Madoka asked as she calibrated the scope to her liking. _"We'd be much better setting up on the roof of the mall."_

"_I saw a rumor on the net that they're going to attack out of the lake,"_ Sakurako answered, chuckling. _"We're going to take 'em down and get tons of prizes!"_

"_Sniper teams are still better off far from the frontline,"_ the short-haired cheerleader said, shaking her head. _"Besides, it's not supposed to start for more than an hour yet."_

"Jeeze, how am I supposed to be an MC if I don't have a mic?" Kazumi grumbled.

"Hey, Asakura-san, I think you can put your little talking device in this thing."

Kazumi looked down to see Sayo floating over a depression in the ground that her holocomm would fit perfectly into. Fishing the device out of her pocket again, she knelt down and pressed it into the slot, which then flashed and sealed shut. Another panel next to it slid open, revealing a compact, aesthetically-pleasing microphone made from a slate blue metal that was warm to the touch. She removed the futuristic-looking device and turned it over in her hands. "The universe provides," she said with a grin.

"Aah, Asakura-san, look!" Sayo said, pointing to the row of monitors.

Kazumi looked over her shoulder at the image of the lakeshore defenses that now showed an ominous mass of droids marching out of the lake, water streaming from their frames. The vast majority were identical to the Tanaka that had entered the tournament the previous day, some even wearing the Terminator-style clothing that it had. Among them were dozens of the medium-sized 'crab' droids and the flying scout units. Their sudden appearance took the lakeshore defenders by surprise, and they took advantage of this to unleash a volley of golden beams from their mouths that destroyed whatever clothing and magic weapons they touched.

"Damn, a strip beam?" Kazumi asked. "Then again, that robot from the tournament yesterday had one, too, so it shouldn't be that surprising."

The smaller monitors began to also display images of battle. Dismissing the lakefront screen from its full-screen size, Kazumi took stock of what she was seeing, and determined that Echo, Foxtrot, and Alpha were already coming under assault at their lakefront defense lines.

Despite the phone blackout, word obviously spread fast. On the complete opposite side of the defense areas, at Defense Point Charlie, the church bells of the St. Ursula All-Girls' school chapel began to toll, the urgent and somber tones echoing across the city-campus to warn all the defenders of the attack in progress.

Listening to the ringing bells, and the rising clatter of war, Kazumi began to feel the cold, spiky rush of adrenaline flooding through her body. Hers wasn't the excitement of a combatant going into battle, but the glee of knowing that this event was going to be the greatest story of her young life, no matter how it ended. She was glad that she'd worn her costume out to the plaza instead of waiting; she'd have been caught without a snazzy outfit for her worldwide debut.

She took a deep breath and raised the microphone, looking down at the panel that indicated that she was now linked and would be broadcasting live to every TV in Japan and other parts of the world. When she spoke, her voice boomed out over the battlegrounds of Mahora.

"_Members of the Mage Knights Defense Brigade, the time has come to rise in the defense of your land! The seditious Martian invaders have launched a surprise attack an hour early, surely planning to catch us unaware. Rally your forces and counterattack, valiant defenders! For honor, for glory! For Mahora!"_


	21. Shooting Gallery

**STOP!** The full experience of Mages vs. Mars can't be felt without having the soundtrack to go along with it. Don't start reading this chapter until you've downloaded the Chapter 20 OST from kuro-arashi (dot) net, available now! It won't be the same without the music!

* * *

"_All along I thought it was just a silly school event. I wouldn't learn until much later just how important the things I did on that day were."  
_- Yuuna Akashi; 'I Am ODST: Memoirs of a Student-Soldier'

**Chapter XX  
****Shooting Gallery**

_June 24, 2007  
__St. Ursula All-Girls' High School Chapel, Defense Point Charlie  
__1735 hours, local time_

"All defense points are engaged with the enemy," Natsume Megumi reported, her dark eyes flickering from screen to screen before her as her fingers flew across the multi-tier keyboard faster than mundane eyes could track. "Nearly two hundred enemy units have been defeated. Our own casualties number less than ten."

As far as the student defenders were concerned, they became 'casualties' whenever their weapons and robes were destroyed by direct strike from a strip beam, forcing them to 'respawn' by acquiring new equipment to fight with. For the mages overseeing the battle, however, 'casualties' were students who suffered an actual injury. So far, only minor scrapes and sprains had occurred, none of which required the attention of the field medical tent set up at the World Tree Plaza, staffed by healing prodigy Konoka and a number of healing-inclined mages.

The mages had chosen the chapel at St. Ursula All-Girls' High School as the center for their command and control facilities for a number of reasons. Foremost among them was the fact that Defense Point Charlie was the farthest from the droids' point of origin at the lakeshore, meaning that it would be the most difficult to assault. Too, the chapel was the very key to the Charlie defense area, the target that the droids would have to secure in order to capture the base. The large number of mages at the chapel would make it a hard slough for the enemy.

In order to convert the chapel into a command and control center, the pews had been moved against the walls, and the empty space in the center had been filled with control stations for the sophisticated surveillance and communications equipment, similar to Fireteam Charlie's equipment, that they had set up around all six defense points. The communications gear on its own lacked the power sufficient to punch through the signal interference, but a boost from the mages on station gave it enough power to penetrate enough to send and receive short-range communications across the Charlie area. Over two dozen holographic display screens floated in the air all around the command center, displaying live images of the battles going on throughout the city.

Professor Akashi, tasked with running the command and control operation, nodded to the girl, just one of many mage students manning the operations center. "That's our student body for you," he said. "As long as casualties remain light and we don't have any fatalities, the operation can continue as planned."

He turned his attention to the primary display, currently showing the ongoing battle at the Alpha point lakeshore, the largest of the current battles. The level of sophistication of their surveillance equipment still amazed him; the system could accurately identify friend from foe, displaying droid units with a red triangle. When they were destroyed, the red triangles would update with a 'THREAT NEUTRALIZED' tag alongside. Student defenders were indicated by aqua-colored triangles and a service tag consisting of a letter and two numbers assigned to them when they had signed up for the event. An entire floating screen was dedicated to keeping track of who was assigned what service tag, their status, and their current score in the event.

He watched idly as the service tag 'K11,' its owner obscured by the beachside cafe that he or she was covering in, flashed yellow to indicate that the defender was firing. A thin violet beam shot out of the cafe, drawing an instant line between a droid infantry unit's head and the location of the sniper. He glanced over to the status screen, which displayed the service tags alphanumerically, and watched as the score of K11, Madoka Kugimiya, increased by seven points.

The service tag nearest Madoka, S17, flashed yellow moments later, and a globular burst of magic energy roared out to strike the flank of a six-legged 'crab' droid, staggering but not significantly damaging the armored unit. The droid immediately swiveled its head toward the origin of the shot and swept a yellow laser-like beam the width of a basketball across the cafe's side. S17 and K07 immediately burned red, the aqua triangles replaced with red x's, indicating that the participants, Sakurako Shiina and Misa Kaziaki according to a glance at the status screen, had taken the brunt of the attack. Madoka's service tag merely flickered orange to indicate she was taking fire; she had either ducked into cover in time or one of her cheerleader compatriots had taken the hit for her.

"Twelve enemy infantry units have broken through the lakeshore defenses!" a voice called out. "They're closing on the main camp!"

The primary image immediately shifted over to a view from above the central plaza, looking down the primary pathway down to the beach. Half a dozen dark forms were moving at an incredible pace, rushing past the startled defenders who were not expecting the enemy to have broken that far through the lines. Akashi regarded this with the steady eye of a trained strategist. "They're probing our defenses for weaknesses, trying to determine what strategy they'll use," he explained. "We're halting their infantry assault, so they're seeing if rapid skirmishers will do the trick."

Defense forces in the central plaza were responding. Amidst the sea of white robes, he spotted a figure in black armor, identified by the service tag 'M07.' He didn't need to look at the status screen to know that it was his daughter, Yuuna, organizing two dozen nearby defenders into a firing squad. "Audio," he called.

A near-roar of intermingled chatter and combat sounds hit the command center like a truck before the technicians weeded out most of the garbage so that individual voices could be heard. _"Line up here behind the barricade! Ready the power drainers! Second line, be ready to hit what the power drainers miss! Snipers, do what you can!"_

Professor Akashi felt a rush of paternal pride at the way in which his daughter was handling the situation. It was moments like these that almost made him regret following his late wife's final wishes to keep their daughter's heritage hidden from her; she showed such tremendous potential in these situations.

The droids had passed the third defense line and taken a massive, momentum-propelled leap into the air, avoiding the scattered defensive fire as they further took the defenders by surprise. He couldn't see her face clearly because of the distance and the helmet covering her head, but the professor knew his daughter was grinning, reveling in the challenge. "Bet you can't stick it..." he murmured to himself, knowing that she'd have kept at least a dozen of the adhesive catalyst grenades for herself to use.

As though she'd heard his challenge, Yuuna holstered the caster in her right hand and reached into a pouch on her armor, producing one of the spherical blue grenades and pressing her thumb down on its activation trigger. The catalyst grenade began to glow a brilliant azure color. _"Hold!"_ she ordered her comrades.

Still in midair, the droids had now cleared the fourth defense line. The second row of Yuuna's firing line began to fidget, clearly wanting to take their shots now, before the enemy got close enough to really threaten them. Akira Okouchi, standing right next to Yuuna, eyeballed the glowing, hissing grenade warily. _"Hold!"_ Yuuna reaffirmed.

"_They're right on top of us!"_ Ako Izumi protested, the rocket launcher on her shoulder beeping steadily to indicate a target lock.

"_Let 'em have it!"_ Yuuna shouted.

Immediately, Akira and three other defenders threw the power drainers up into the air. Half a second into their flight, the devices activated, unleashing a five-meter electromagnetic pulse sphere, the spacing of the thrown devices carefully calculated to cover the entire approach path of the droids. The mechanical enemies, upon passing through the energy field, dropped like stones, leaving them weakened and vulnerable to the fire from the other defenders, and the thrown catalyst grenade from Yuuna, which stuck to one of the droids still stubbornly attempting to rise.

"Alpha Team, have you located the droids' point of origin yet?" a voice from across the chapel called.

"_Negative, Command, no luck yet. We're still looking, but it seems they're coming out of the sewers. We can't exactly blow those."_

"Copy that, Alpha Team."

So far, it had been determined that the droids had divided into two units, the first of which was assaulting the lakeshore, and the second had used the sewers to get to the inland defense lines, originating from some unknown point underground. Mage teams were searching for these origin points in the hopes of stemming the flow of enemy reinforcements.

"Enemy forces are entering Echo's first killzone," a technician reported.

Akashi looked to another holographic screen that showed the waves of droid infantry, currently unmolested by Echo's defenders, advancing across open beach of that defense point. Unmolested, of course, did not mean uncontested, as the large numbers of friendly Identify-Friend/Foe tags clustered in the buildings that had been turned into makeshift bunkers facing the beach indicated. Those droids were about to have a bad day.

---

_Echo Mobile Command Unit, Second Defense Point Area  
__1738 hours_

"Sir, first units have crossed the first defense line," a technician called out. Lorenzo just smiled, and sipped from the hydration pack in his shoulder. The terrain meant the robots had to start funneling up the main street, and everywhere, the unseen defenders were waiting. Some were nervous, some were already getting ready to spring their trap, but Lorenzo himself seemed to be happy, or discontent.

"Sir, confirm, approaching second defense line, they will reach the forward final protective line soon."

"Good, arm the first mine field," Lorenzo said, as he swung his feet out the side. The command crew inside the Warthog worked at a frantic pace, getting the minefield prepped. The droids had been passing over the buried mines, deactivated as they were, there were three layers, one made of anti-infantry mines, another made out of anti-tank mines, and the third was another set of anti-tank ones. The mines primed and ready, Lorenzo pulled out his pistols, and pointed at the advancing army while he saw that the bots were close to the first two tanks.

"Now!" he yelled, as a communications officer inside shouted orders. The technician next to him had his thumb over the mine activation key, ready to spring the trap.

---

_First Defense Line, Defense Point Echo  
__1740 hours_

Nearby, in the first set of tanks, Lieutenant Nakamura Junichiro was looking to his crewmen. His tank, the Centurion MBT designated as CA-03, though called 'Wakizashi,' had hit bad luck with a broken down transmission, but that doesn't mean they were out. As the highest ranking Fireteam Charlie member in this area of the first defense line, he was waiting for his orders to fire, his crew growing sweaty at the fact the droids were close to the forward bunkers merely 5 meters to their side. Then sure enough, word was to open fire.

His gunner let loose a long burst, followed by Staff Sergeant Michishige Kyousuke in the 'Tsurugi' in the other side of the street. Their infantry troops opened up as well, careful single shots, taking droids out slowly and carefully. The enemy started to fall, as the machine guns from the tanks and rifle fire from those behind the tanks started to cut down the first few ranks of the robot army.

No one really knew what happened...well, no one outside the defenders that is. The Tanaka-bots had walked into a mine field, and soon, many droids fell victim to the mines they were stepping over. Pockets of empty space were made in the advancing army, and with each explosion, and Lorenzo waved his guns around like a crazed maestro. The explosions were also the cue for the rest of the defenders to spring to action. Windows and other camouflaged emplacements opened up, and the empty bunkers sprang to life, automated heavy machine guns, namely .50 cal heavy machine guns and automated M240s joined in. From above, in the right flank, several imposing looking cannon tubes stuck out. The heavy weapons out front were several Type 11 infantry guns. Used by the Imperial Japanese Army by secondary troops, they proved ineffective against Allied armor, but against this enemy? The high explosive shell made nice double or triple kills. The recoilless rifles were held back, mainly due to the fact they would be needed later on.

The advancing robots were cut down, as more and more explosions of the first set of activated mines started to cut them apart. A mixture of standard anti-personnel, Bouncing Betty mines, small scale artillery shells, as well as machine gun, and rifle fire were quickly thinning out the first wave of attackers.

---

_Defense Point Echo, Command Area  
__1744 hours_

As the battle waged on in the first defense row, the artillery crews were at their were getting ready. Manning the venerable Type 96 15cm Howitzers, they were ready for the proposed enemy armor, and for the first defense line to be overrun. Loading fragmentation shells, their gunners were waiting for their target. Maria was in the command center, observing the battle through cameras, and directing the defenders to focus fire in one area or another.

---

_Echo Mobile Command Unit, Second Defense Point Area  
The __Same Time_

While the battle waged in front of Lorenzo, a few beams barely missing him, he heard shrieks, yelling, and gunfire, as well as the unmistakable smacks of girls smacking their boyfriend.. His smile when his escort troops were literally stripped of their clothing made some think of him as a pervert. What had happened was that several robots had snuck up on the second point, and as those stripped ran for the nearest changing spot, the bots approached Lorenzo, literally surrounding him, opening their mouths to expose the strip beam, as well as one with a FAMAS G2. The Famas holder seemed to be the leader.

"Enemy commander captured....Reque-" The droid was cut off as a burst from Lorenzo's left machine pistol blasted its head open. As the bot fell, it let loose a burst of rounds, which impacted into the stone and concrete side of the building. Lorenzo was slightly hunched over, a weird grin on his face.

Lorenzo whipped out his other machine pistol as the body of the first victim hit the ground. Uttering the phrase "Arma Salto" before moving, Lorenzo ducked down and stepped out, where 14 beams converged. Lorenzo though, was no longer there. He was moving swiftly within the group, firing as soon as a pistol was lined up to a droid. Ducking, jumping, and sidestepping beams, the droids frantically tried to get a fix on the fast moving man without hitting their comrades. But before long, Lorenzo's little dance wiped out the infiltration unit, the last droid going down within a minute of their leader biting the dust.

Lorenzo holstered his pistols once more, and took a pair of binoculars from an aide, only to see the last group of Tanakas fire their strip beams ineffectively at the tanks and buildings before being reduced to a pile of scrap. In the time between the first burst of fire from CA-03's coax and the mine field's detonation to the last group being decimated, it was merely a matter of minutes. The entire first wave had been wiped out at the cost of twelve 'casualties.' That didn't matter though, as a fresh wave was already bubbling up.

---

_Beach Head, Defense Point Foxtrot First Defense Line  
__1743 hours_

Stopping to catch his breathe and calm himself, Takaki took cover at the nearest place he could find, that being a life guard post. Takaki had fired roughly eight to fifteen shots at the nearest androids when they first appeared and made them count; he counted at least seven if not more of the bots drop after he fired. He was almost caught by one the enemy beams, but a retreating participant had stepped in the way just in time to catch the brunt of it. Thinking back on it, he grinned. "Thank you for the luck, Hiro-kun."

The amateur spy did some quick math to estimate his remaining shots, he was no where near out of ammo, but it was good to be aware of these things. Takaki laughed, though he tried to keep himself from getting himself too excited. "Where is Hiro, the last thing I heard from him was that he was going to be a hero. What the hell does that mean?" the junior asked himself as checked how clear the surroundings were. Satisfied to some degree, Takaki moved out from behind the life guard tower he'd used for cover back onto the flat and sandy terrain of the beach. He still had many people to use as cover even if the terrain yielded nothing.

The young mister Sato came out sprinting, aiming for a small trash can as cover. Beams and lasers zoomed and shooped all around him, but he did not return fire, that would be wasteful of ammo.

Suddenly, an enemy beam ricocheted off the very cover he was seeking, sending the rogue strip beam soaring towards Takaki. Filling out his reputation of an action spy, what happened in seconds, was slow motion to Takaki Sato. Clunky though it was, the secret agent wannabe somersaulted over the shot and landed into a sliding roll to the trash can.

Takaki let out a cheerful howl at his accomplishment "YEAH! That was aweso-" stopped Takaki as another shot passed too close for comfort. "Aaand that's why no one but Hiro-kun is aloud to get a hot head.." mumbled Takaki readying his pistols. He exhaled, and quickly popped up from his cover as more androids headed up the beach. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine Martian heads whipped back from the shots. Their limp bodies crumbled to the ground, but an even eighteen rose to take their place, and behind those even more. "Never fight fair with strangers," he said to himself, retrieving his power drainer from his robes.

Waiting for the opportune moment to present itself, he waited and held his fire. There! a small gap in a large emerging droid formation. "Everyone now, Drainers!!"

With all the strength he could muster he chucked the power drainer as hard as he could into the open gap in the droid line. All those within earshot responded by tossing their own drainers at the fresh droids. And before the Martians could lift a finger or toe to stop it, they were engulfed in a blue sphere of cerulean electricity. In a vain attempt to get away, the droids still twitched violently as they collapsed into neat piles all along the front line, though still alive.

"Let 'em have it!!! As ONE!!!"

And with those words, in addition with countless voices giving out either cheers or incantations the entire beach lit up with white lights, crashing into the droids and demolishing the Martian line on the whole beach head of Foxtrot.

"This is too easy," called one male player.

"We mopped the floor with those guys," came the voice of another.

Takaki turned to those behind him. "Keep the pressure on, don't get cocky! These were probably just the losers sent to test our strength!" shouted the water headed informant. This did not stop them from continuing their own victory rants. They're more brawlers than warriors or fighters, brave amateurs; they do their part.

He turned back to the beach and chuckled a little bit. "A good start..."

---

_Street Intersection Near Starbooks Coffee, Third of Five Defense Lines, Defense Point Charlie  
__The Same Time_

Two of the multitude of mages on assignment to find the point of origin for the droids attacking the inland defense points ran down a sidewalk heading away from the World Tree, following a city map on a handheld PDA toward an aboveground storm drain. "Fifteen meters ahead, turn right!" called out the mage in the back, turning the PDA in his hand.

The pair stopped at the corner of a building long enough for the point man to check the intersection, ensuring it was clear of enemy droids. It was, so they took off around the corner to the right, heading toward the storm drain visible at the end of the road. "East, ten meters!" the guide called unnecessarily.

"_Watch for droids, Alpha Team,"_ the voice of one the controllers from the command center in the chapel warned.

Their objective was to weld the storm drain closed so that the droids couldn't use it as an access point. Slinging their magic casters, they reached for the flame catalyst grenades they'd be using to heat-weld the drain shut and maintain their own mana pools. As they neared, the point man caught movement from within the drain, and turned to shout a warning to his partner, when the drain exploded outward, the force pitching the two mages from their feet.

A six-legged armored crab droid _crawled_ out of the ruined drain, its red seeker eye sweeping back and forth across the street before it, actively seeking targets. Dozens of Tanaka droids, some wearing jeans and black long-sleeved shirts for reasons unknown, but most nothing but their bare metal frames, poured out around the crab droid, far too many for the mages to stop, even without the damning presence of the walker.

"Shit!" the team leader exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet, pulling his partner up behind him. "Command, they've breached the storm drain on 5th Street!"

"_Copy that, Alpha Team. Fall back to Sector Three, friendly forces have set up a roadblock there."_

As they ran from the enemy force, strip beams lighting up the air around them, the guide looked down at his PDA to see a new waypoint marker appear; they'd passed the position on their approach to the drains. "Got it, Command, we're on the way."

They turned the nearest corner they could find, heading back up the hill in the general direction of the St. Ursula High School. The map showed the allied position around a corner ahead to their left, on the road that bypassed the Starbooks Coffee. Behind them, they could hear the steady thump of the advancing droids' charge, and knew that the enemy would be right behind them.

Coming around the corner at full tilt, they leaped over the barricade of cars that had been pulled to block the street, manned by two dozen student defenders both immediately behind the barricade and in the outer courtyard of the Starbooks. "Get back here, they're coming!" the team leader shouted to the defenders.

The students immediately moved into position, most taking up shelter behind the barrier of cars and overturned tables at the coffee shop, others pressing their backs up against the wall of the apartment complex that covered the right flank of the position. They could all hear the charging droids now.

The orchestrator of the barricade, Kenji Matsumoto, a University ROTC squad leader who was not a Halo fan and therefore had not joined Fireteam Charlie, eyeballed the apartment complex's wall suspiciously. He was something of a student of tactics, and were he in the enemy's position, he'd bring down that wall in order to flank the barricade.

It was better to be safe than sorry.

He pointed out to the students using the wall for cover. "Hey, you, get away from the wall!"

The group looked toward him and began to follow his order, but his thoughts proved prophetic all too soon. The brick wall collapsed out into the street, brought down by the enemy forces just as he'd predicted, burying the defenders beneath the rubble. Panicked by the sudden surprise attack, there was an instant of hesitation amongst the defenders.

Matsumoto broke the spell as he snapped up his magic caster, one of the ones modeled off the Covenant plasma rifle, and poured fire at the attacking force as he shouted, "Damn it!"

Snapped out of their shock, the others counterattacked as well, a wave of magic beams crumpling the droids that had collapsed the wall. The two mages of Alpha Team spotted more infantry and the crab droid approaching the barricade from the front, shouted a warning, and half the fire of the defenders turned in that direction, the others continuing to fire at the droids coming through the wall.

One enemy droid stepped through the dust and debris, the strip beam emitter in its mouth already charged with energy, firing its beam blindly at a cluster of students before a concentration of fire brought it down. The beam grazed one student who dodged aside at the last second, disintegrating the upper right side of his robe and the clothes beneath it.

"Stand your ground!" Matsumoto shouted to the student, who nodded and redoubled his attacks.

One student reached into his robe and drew a catalyst grenade, arming it and drawing his arm back in preparation to hurl it into the advancing mass of droids, when an aerial drone swooped out of the sky and slammed into him, knocking him off his feet, his head impacting the side of one of the cars and sending him into unconsciousness. The armed grenade dropped to the ground at his feet.

Another student picked up the downed student's magic caster and, dual-wielding the plasma rifle-lookalikes, fired into the enemy ranks, burning down a charging droid, as he shouted to the nearest student, a girl from his school who'd been nearest their fallen comrade, "Throw it!"

She picked up the hissing object and, knowing there was no time to aim at a target, let out a wordless shout and hurled the grenade as far away from them as she could. The grenade exploded in front of the drone, which was coming around to make another pass. The drone's light armor crumpled, its internal reactor detonating from the compression, and its shattered husk dropped to the ground behind the barricade, raining metal fragments on the two students who had just saved their comrades a considerable amount of pain, who now stared at one another as though seeing them for the first time.

---

_Allied Main Camp  
__The Same Time_

Kazumi grinned as she watched enlarged screen showing the events underway at the 5th Street ambush. She didn't have the 'love radar' that her classmate and member of Negi's party, Haruna Saotome, did, but even she could tell that that last-second save had sparked something between those two students. Utilizing the features of her station to the fullest, she set the images transmitted to the televisions across the world to show a slow-motion replay of the 'epic grenade stick,' starting from when the drone had flattened the one student.

"It seems like love can bloom anywhere, even in the midst of battle, as these two protecting the St. Ursula High School have learned! Despite the ferocity of the Martian attack and having sustained a number of casualties, the third defense line of Defense Point Charlie are holding strong and beating them back, no doubt thanks to the leadership skills and inspiring presence of their leader, Matsumoto Kenji. A junior at Mahora University and squad leader in the ROTC program, Matsumoto-san is expected to perform well in the games."

She ended the playback loop and dismissed the Defense Point Charlie screen, then immediately enlarged the Foxtrot screen and began to cover the events happening on the beach, barely sparing a glance to the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter landing near Konoka's healing tent and allowing a robed defender cradling a broken arm to dismount and head toward the medical station.

---

_Command and Control Center, Defense Point Charlie  
__1744 hours_

One section of the command center was dedicated to personnel controlling medical evacuation teams scattered and moving throughout the combat zones. Each team consisted of a UH-60 Black Hawk and combat team provided by the Japan Self-Defense Force and US Marine Corps, courtesy of favors Konoemon had culled. "Team Three, priority shift. Deviate from original course and move to Sector Three, Alpha Team's position. Five casualties, four buried beneath rubble. Proceed with caution. They're under heavy fire."

Currently, there were six medical teams active, and each had a corresponding holographic panel floating over the medevac controller's station. The bottom center panel corresponded to Team Three, and the US Marine captain piloting the Black Hawk, Luther Douglas glanced toward the dash of his helicopter where the communications gear was located, and answered, _"Team Three copies. En route to priority casualty evac."_

A young female JSDF lieutenant from the upper right screen added, _"Team Five here. I've just offloaded my batch. Team Three, we'll give you cover until we get another call."_

"_Copy that, Team Five. Thanks."_

At the analyst station across from Natsume, Shizuna Minamoto turned in her seat to draw Akashi's attention. "Akashi-sensei, my analysis of the enemy tactics is complete," she said. "It appears that the droids are operating with an aggressive adaptability strategic program installed. That is to say, they respond with to our use of strategies and tactics with appropriate applications of their own."

Akashi turned toward her. "In other words, when faced with a gaggle of students firing at random, an opposing group of droids will not employ any specific formations or tactics?" he asked.

The 'guidance counselor' nodded. "And when faced with a strong strategic defense line such as encountered at 5th Street, they will use flanking maneuvers and surprise, demoralizing attacks."

Akashi paled and turned back to view the large displays of the ongoing battle. "With that in mind, it seems like those kids from Fireteam Charlie over at Echo are going to take the biggest hit in all of this."

"More enemy forces!" Natsume called. "Uh oh... They're attacking with a force of armor!"

Dozens of the armored crab droids broke the surf at the lakeshore defense lines, crawling steadily up the beach, all but impervious to the small-arms caster fire. They appeared to attack in one of two ways, either with the sweeping beam, or shorter beam bursts that packed significantly more punch.

---

_Beach, Defense Point Alpha Second Defense Line  
__1747 hours_

The first orderly lines of mages and droids trading fire at the beach were now gone. Droid forces had established a significant beachhead and were advancing steadily through the allies' white caster fire that fell on them like rain, heedless of the losses they were taking as they continued to press forward. Most of the defenders had fallen back to the raised roadway running adjacent to the beach, taking advantage of the greater cover afforded there.

"Head for cover!" "Don't let up! Keep shooting!"

Madoka leaned out from behind cover to snipe another infantry droid, gritting her teeth against the barrage of strip beams smashing into the ground and barricades all around her. She'd chosen a weapon that would allow her to make undisputed kills, but it was useless against the enemy armor.

In the trenches dug in the sand just below the roadway, she heard a shout, then a wave of glowing blue catalyst grenades flew out at the enemy ranks. The resultant explosions kicked up sand and significantly reduced the number of infantry, but barely scratched the crab droids, and more infantry were _still_ pouring out of the lake.

Of the handful of students standing in intervals before the trenches, one crouching behind a trash can took a strip beam to the chest, his robe, weapons, and clothing except for his boxers evaporating in the blink of an eye, the force of the hit knocking him back on his rear. The heavy _whump-whump-whump_ sound of a crab droid using its more powerful strip beam like a repeating blaster cannon echoed over the whine of the Mahoran casters and the hiss of the droids lower-powered beams. One unlucky girl took one such heavy beam to the chest, the impact picking her up and throwing her back into the railing of the raised roadway as the beam divested her of her equipment.

"_Jaculetur_!" Sakurako called as she popped up from behind the railing, the magic blast from her rocket launcher striking the already-weakened leg joint of one of the crab droids, blowing the leg off and sending the armored unit crashing to the sand. The force of the explosion also destroyed four infantry caught in the blast radius. "Yeah!" the cheerleader exclaimed. "Overkill!"

The destruction of the crab droid was good news, but it didn't significantly hamper the enemy's advance, not with dozens more of the armored machines still in combat. In retaliation for the destroyed unit, the one nearest it unleashed a sweeping beam in the direction of Sakurako, but the cheerleader had learned from her earlier 'death;' she was already behind cover, though the exclamations of a dozen of her comrades indicated they'd borne the brunt of the beam.

Madoka took out another droid with two rapid-fire shots, then hissed in pain as her weapon overheated in her hands, letting go of the barrel and shaking the burning sensation out of her left hand. "Dammit, this is bad. They're pushing us back."

---

_Beach, Defense Point Echo  
__The Same Time_

The droids had learned from the crushing defeat of their first infantry wave. Twenty crab droids advanced up the beach, sweeping their strip beams across the positions of the defense forces that had revealed themselves when they had attacked the first wave; that had been the only purpose of the first wave, after all, to force the defenders to reveal themselves. Several of the marching juggernauts concentrated their beams in rapid-fire mode at the two tanks, only intent on keeping the tanks' attention on themselves, as they knew that their strip beams would not harm the tanks. As this was happening, more infantry were rushing the first defense line, running at full tilt as opposed to marching, intent on boarding the tanks and disabling or destroying them by any means.

The crab walkers advanced, their strip beams peppering the bunkers and buildings, as well as the tanks. The infantry was still being decimated by machine gun and rifle fire, as well as the scant few mines left in the first layer. But that wasn't enough. Meanwhile, back in the tanks, Junichiro Nakamura had seen the walkers, their strip beams proving ineffective against the tank armor. Although amused, for now, their focus was the infantry. The walkers could be dealt with later.

"Load canister! Target the infantry!"

The gunners loaded the canister rounds, nasty things, turns the tank's main gun into a giant shotgun. Normally, rifling gives the canister shot an even worse spread pattern, but since there were no overly expansive ranges in Mahora that FTC and others could practice in, the L7 105mm cannons on the tanks had been replaced with a modified version, this time being a smoothbore cannon.

The effects of the canister shot was painfully obvious. The tungsten balls erupted from the two tanks, cutting down a huge swath of the attacking infantry, penetrating half the formation, as the coaxial machine guns and kept on firing between shots. The crews inside worked feverishly, as more and more of the advancing infantry was cut down, any attacker missed by the overlapping blasts were cut down by coaxial machine guns or by rifle fire.

This proved useless though, because by the time the fourth canister shot was fired, the droids had amassed again, this time keeping behind the now advancing walkers. Two had already been downed, a combination of 37mm, .50 cal, and 7.62mm gun and artillery fire. Another was badly damaged, when the full force of a canister round hit it. A few more were also downed, damaged or destroyed outright by the anti-tank mines. "Argh!!! Load HESH, alternate between HESH and HEAT!!!! Target the walkers!"

The 'Wakizashi' opened up on the first droid walker. HESH, or High Explosive Squash Head, rounds are thin metal shells filled with plastic explosive and a delayed-action base fuse. On impact, the plastic explosive is 'squashed' against the surface of the target, and spreads out to form a disc of explosive. A tiny fraction of a second later, the base fuse detonates the explosive, creating a shock wave that, owing to its large surface area and direct contact with the target, conducts very effectively through the material. In short, it destroyed the walkers, but not very effectively.

The next shot though, was HEAT, or High Explosive Anti-Tank. A different type of anti-tank round, it was a shaped charge munition that uses the Neumann effect to create a superheated jet of molten metal to punch through tank armor. The jet moves at hypersonic speeds (up to 25 times the speed of sound) in solid material and therefore erodes exclusively in the contact area of jet and armor material. Spacing is critical, as the jet disintegrates and disperses after a relatively short distance, usually well under 2 meters. The jet material is formed by a cone of metal foil lining, usually copper, though tin foil was common during the Second World War. This round proved more effective than HESH, as the walkers taken down by HESH had sometimes proven they were just immobilized.

The students had slowly been evacuated into the second defense zone by now, the rifle fire gradually fading, while all but four of the 37mm gun crews made it back, the rest stripped by the droids and knocked out due to the force of the beam.

---

_Second Defense Line, Defense Point Echo  
__1750 hours_

Lorenzo stood in front of the barricade, his pistols out. He was observing the battle, and at times, covering the students streaming from the buildings and alleyways. A few universal carriers dragged along some wounded, but mainly equipment. Pretty soon, all that was left of the first defense line were the two tanks. He hoped the engineer crew had gotten there in time. They were sent to finish fixing the repairs on the 'Wakizashi.' Behind him, some Universal Carriers were being fitted with plows.

"Seems like they're doing well, for robots. Reinforce the second line!"

---

_First Defense Line, Defense Point Echo  
__The Same Time_

The engineering crew had reached the tank in time, and by the time the 'Tsurugi' started to fall back, its treads crushing the stone steps beneath it, the 'Wazikashi' was fixed. Too little too late, even as its coaxial gun and canister shot dropped multitudes of droids, it was overrun. Its guns fell silent, as the tank crew escaped from hatches underneath the tank.

The crew of 'Tsurugi' spotted the trouble that their fellows had fallen into, and halted their retreat, swiveling the turret back around and firing canister shells into the advancing droid formation as fast as the gunner could load the cannon. Combined fire from the canister shells and the coaxial machine gun created a steel rain that decimated the advance wave of droid infantry, buying time for the crew of 'Wakizashi' to board a retreating universal carrier.

So intent was the crew of 'Tsurugi' on covering their comrades that they failed to notice the swarm of droids pouring out of the alley beside them, until they heard the metallic enemy clambering up onto the armor of their tank, using their vast mechanical strength to bend the main cannon out of alignment and begin the process of tearing the main hatch open to get at the crew inside. Like the crew of the 'Wakizashi' before them, Michishige Kyousuke and his crew used the bottom hatches in the tank to escape to freedom. Fortunately, a manhole cover was directly beneath the current position of the tank, providing an easy and safe escape route for the crew.

---

_Main Command Area, Defense Point Echo  
__1753 hours_

Maria was told that the last of the people had been evacuated, the stripped crew members of the 37mm guns having been picked up by a few mages, and there were no IFF tags within the first defense line. "The area is cleared! Infantry may be the queen of the battlefield, but artillery is the king, and we all know what the king does to the queen! All artillery, fire!"

From outside the command tent, orders had been given and heavy, bone-jarring thumps filled the air as the first of the Type 96 guns opened fire. Raining down shells into the beach area, the mixture of high explosive, shrapnel, and white phosphorous incendiary started to decimate the reinforcement wave, while forward observers started directing the artillery fire to walk towards large groups of enemies. Already, the crab walkers were gone, targeted first by the artillery, while many of the bots scattered, taking shelter in the now abandoned FTC bunkers or in side streets.

In all, it was a Pyrrhic victory for the droids, as most of the defenders managed to retreat, while they, being left out in the open, were cut down. Those charging the second line was unsuccessful, due to the mass amount of guns trained on them. The next wave will have to be more aggressive it if wants to survive the next line.

---

_Beach, First Defense Line, Defense Point Foxtrot  
__1755 hours_

Panic quickly spread through the mage ranks on the beach head, leading to breaking of ranks and running clusterfucks of students. "Shit! where'd these things come from!!?" shouted a front-line female participant shooting feverishly at the crab tanks with her plasma rifle. Preoccupied with the new droids, she didn't count on being blasted by nearby Tanaka infantry.

"Come on, come on!" called a student frantically attempting to reload his rocket launcher after already firing two shots at the nearest walker. Upon sealing up the loading port he attempted to retry taking out the tank. "_Jacule_-" It was in vain as the very walker he was targeting saw him as a threat and decided to remove him. These were just two examples at what was happening across the first defense line.

The droid forces were slowly but surely making their way up the beach, taking little casualties amidst the pandemonium, stripping contestants left and right as they marched so steadily in unison that the ground shook, sending a subtle rumbling sound echoing through the streets in Foxtrot's sector. Few were foolish to stand and fight even with good cover, most could only do damage to the infantry units. "There's no hope here! Fall back to the second line!" called one retreating man who felt the need to jump up onto a parked car to shout this command. Again, not a smart idea. And sure enough the man was sent flying off the car onto his back to the concrete below him after a heavy walker shot collided with his chest, evaporating his clothing and equipment.

People didn't need to be told twice, even in the confusion. The man's sacrifice was not in vain, quite a motivating little scene that convinced other fleeing players to 'get the fuck outta Dodge' faster than before. However, in the rush they soon became bottled up, even though the main street was not narrow, the situation quickly devolving into the proverbial 'shooting fish in a barrel' for the Martian invaders.

Takaki had been busy organizing all the rocket teams he could find to the roof of a nearby cafe as the massive retreat ensued. At this point, the rocket teams were willing to listen to whoever would lead them; despite the few feeling cowardly for being on the rooftops while those clustering below were stripped and blasted with no mercy.

"We should help them, Takaki-kun...It's not right," came the quiet voice of a young blue haired boy the same age as Takaki. The ever shy yet strong willed Taiyo Miyazaki gripped his morals tightly always, just like his younger sister Nodoka. He brushed his medium length dark blue hair from his eyes, clutching his rocket launcher tightly to his chest and looking up at his friend.

At this Takaki merely smirked and nodded. "Yes Taiyo-kun, we will. But to give ourselves away would be to seal all of our fates. They're trying to scare us but they forget: They are the visitors and we are the home team," he said confidently, normally he'd never be able to summon said courage without Hiroyuki. Smiling at the thought that Hiro's coaching was finally kicking in, he looked around to count the heads of the meager team rocket Takaki'd assembled. Nine, including himself and Taiyo, with only the eight having rockets. Takaki had picked up another drainer dropped by another player. "Okay, all enemies always have a weak point. No matter how intimidating they seem, we have to buy enough time for the others to escape. Aim for the joints or turret, that should be your target. Then we'll regroup with the defenders at the second defense line via an alternate route."

The other contestants nodded quietly in agreement as Takaki explained the bulk of the plan. "I only have one drainer and two grenades, so this first attack has to count and stall the enemy long enough for the rest of our forces to retreat. We wait until the first walker enters the street, aim for the joints, because even if we can't destroy it we can immobilize it. Remember, on my command."

As though on cue, almost right after Takaki finished speaking, the rumbling could be felt right beneath them on the street below. Still firing with the constant _whump-whump-whump_ sound of the main strip cannon into the fray of slowly retreating students. The first of the crab walker line crossed onto the street from the sandy beach. The eyes of all on that cafe rooftop were on Takaki, who inhaled deeply.

"Rockets!!! Strike them out, this is our game!"

Getting to his feet at once, Takaki withdrew all of his grenades and tossed his freshly activated drainer onto the marching android ranks that formed a Martian wall around the walker, sapping their energy quickly, a redux of what he did on the beach. The walker didn't take noticeable damage but sparked and ceased moving, stopped dead in it's deadly march. His grenades stuck to random droids and blew them away, but it was the rockets fired after the unified "_JACULETUR_!" of the assembled explosive militia that made the plan work. Every rocket hit, but only six collided with it's leg joints. The other three smashed up it's turret barrel. The six that hit the legs were unimaginably accurate for random civilians, for they blew off two of the left legs. Sending the hulking metal crab crashing down into the street, barring the tanks behind it from getting past for now.

Taiyo laughed at their success and quickly smacked Takaki's shoulder. He turned and yelled to the people in the street. "Get outta here, back to the second line! We've stopped them for a little bit, so be prepared for them to resume advancing in a while!"

Taiyo was suddenly jerked backwards as a shot skimmed not and inch or so from his face. Takaki had saved the male Miyazaki, to which Takaki confirmed, "I think we pissed them off, time to go!"

Getting to his feet and motioning the rest of the team to clear the rooftop, he said, "We'll use the cellar, it leads into the basement of the shop adjacent to this one. From there we take the back alleys to the second line."

The assembled group dodged shots and cleared obstacles on their way through the cafe's transparent glass interior, finally taking cover behind the bar, where they proceeded to open the basement hatch and quickly disappear down their narrow escape route.

---

_International High School, Defense Point Foxtrot Central Defense Area  
__1758 hours_

"Seven enemy units have broken the defensive lines and are advancing on the courtyard! All available forces, keep them from taking the base!" a voice called out using the school's public address system, the most reliable form of communication with the phone blackout in place.

"You heard them, let's move!" ordered an American exchange student with shaggy brown hair and a thin, diagonal scar cutting down from his forehead across the bridge of his nose. Like all the other students, he wore a protective mage robe, but had opted not to take one of the weapon, choosing instead to combine one of the anti-machine 'Jammer' rings with his own weapon, a large and heavy sword.

"Yeah, let's do this shit!" one of his companions, another American with spiked blond hair and a lightning bolt tattoo on the side of his face agreed, pumping a densely-muscled arm into the air. He too had chosen a melee approach, his weapons of choice being fingerless, thick leather gloves with metal plates covering the knuckles.

The two Americans and the six other seniors they'd grabbed to provide ranged support took off at a run toward the central courtyard. As they passed through a hallway, the swordsman glanced outside to a holographic screen floating in the air that showed the ongoing battle down at the second defense line. A full-on melee had broken out as the defenders of the high school, mostly the students of the school, collided with a droid attack force nearly five hundred strong. Armed with everything from the magic weapons provided to folding chairs, weightlifting bars, and practice rifles from the JROTC program, the defenders waged a furious battle that more resembled a riot than a city-wide event.

"Heads up, they're ahead!" one of the ranged students called out, snapping the swordsman's attention forward, where the seven droids they had come to intercept were in the process of smashing their way through the barricaded doors into the gym. The gym was one of the 'respawn areas' where the resupply crystals and much of their backup weapons were stored. If the droids took that out, they'd be at a major disadvantage.

The swordsman nodded to the brawler, and they took off toward the enemy, moving to either side of the hallway, putting a dozen feet between them in the process. The other six students fired a volley of magic beams into the open space between them, destroying two droids outright and damaging a third.

The other droids turned toward the sudden attack to find the two seniors nearly on top of them. The droid directly in front of the brawler racheted its mouth open, charging energy for a strip beam. Before it could fire, the brawler leapt up and slammed his fist into the droid's mouth, shattering the emitter lens and crushing the firing components. The stricken droid collapsed, and two more moved toward the brawler. A low sweep dropped the first, and a rising double-kick sent the second smashing through a window into a smaller courtyard outside.

On the other side of the group, the swordsman ducked under a pair of strip beams and came up with his blade swinging, the heavy carbon sword cleaving through the reinforced metal chasis of the nearest droid like mere paper. Pivoting, he continued the swing to behead the second droid within range. Another shot from their ranged support finished off the last of the seven enemies.

Before the group could celebrate, the ceiling above imploded, filling the corridor with debris and dust, forcing the two melee combatants to move back and raise their arms to protect their vision. All was still and silent for a moment, then once their vision cleared, they found three crab droids occupying the hallway between the two groups.

The swordsman and the brawler looked to each other, exchanged nods, and then rushed at the droids, the brawler exclaiming, "Let's get it on!"

---

_World Tree Plaza, Lower Section, Fourth of Five Defense Lines  
__1759 hours_

The enemy's advance against the allied main camp was hard and brutal, pushing forward with a force of crab droid armor followed by dozens of infantry. This strategy forced engagements along all the approaches to the World Tree Plaza, preventing the outnumbered and engaged Mahoran defenders from sending reinforcements to block the enemy advance on the central plaza.

Yuuna looked down to the third defense line as the lead crab droid swept its beam across the street, eliminating ten combatants in the blink of an eye. Hartley's IFF tag on her helmet's HUD display flashed yellow as a vapor trail appeared out of one of the upper-floor windows on an apartment building along the main route and the loud crack of the sniper rifle echoed above the other noise. At least Hartley was accurate, and unlikely to hit any allies by mistake.

Retreating defenders from the third line joined up with her group at the fourth, breathing heavily, staring at the approaching enemy units with dread. "Things are getting tough," one student said as a beam from the enemy ranks blasted one of the retreating stragglers.

"Those damn tank things take eight hits with the rockets to kill!" added another defender who was toting one of the launchers.

"There's no end to the damn droids," Yuuna muttered, surveying the carnage.

One of the Narutaki twins, the gunslinger girl wasn't sure which, asked in a frightened voice, "Hey, we lose if the robots take over the plaza above, right? And we don't get any prizes if we lose?"

"We're being pushed back," Akira noted, ducking her head as a strip beam glanced too close. She reached into her robes and produced the equipment she had taken for the battle, throwing the deployable cover out in order to give some protection to their retreating allies from the lower defense lines.

Yuuna turned toward her, but before she could say anything, her motion tracker lit up with a huge blob of red enemy contacts, all seemingly right on top of them. She looked around, then looked up in time to see a crab droid and two dozen infantry coming down directly on their position. "Get back!" she shouted, boosting her vocal enhancers. "They're going to drop right on us! Move out of the way!"

She waited until her comrades had moved before she retreated as well, the proximity of the enemy units forcing her to take a leaping roll out of the way or be crushed beneath the tank. One of the infantry looked down at her and opened its mouth to eliminate her, but suddenly Akira was standing over her, the staff in her hand swinging horizontally toward the droid's head. The weapon connected with a chest-hammering boom of energy, and a concussive wave of magic obliterated the struck droid and shattered the four nearest it.

Other droids turned toward them, determining Akira's gravity hammer-like use of her staff to be a major threat, and charged their beams. Something small and spherical clattered to the ground right next to Yuuna's visor, and she blinked involuntarily as the bubble shield thrown by Fumika activated, and not a moment too soon. Nearly twenty strip beams splashed harmlessly against the golden sphere of energy surrounding Yuuna and Akira.

"Nice save, Fumika-chan!" Ako praised as she knelt down behind a bench, leveling her rocket launcher with one of the leg joints of the crab droid.

On a high-rise building looking over the pitched battle, two figures watched the ensuing chaos, the desperate defense of the quartet of 3-A students. "They're protected for now," the one in heavy, European-styled armor said. "Time for us to make our entrance, then."

"I suppose so," answered the other, clad more like a samurai. "They've held off the enemy remarkably well for nearly thirty minutes now."

"No doubt. Let's get in there!"

The two figures leapt from their high perch, unnoticed by enemy and ally alike as they descended like angels of death toward the enemy lines. A quartet of droids broke from the enemy group and rushed toward the bubble shield protecting Akira and Yuuna. "Heads down!" the armored figure shouted.

Yuuna glanced up in time to see a flash of red and steel before the armored figure hit the ground in front of the bubble shield, a massive sword in hand smashing into the ground, the concussive wind blast from the impact knocking the four droids back as they literally came apart. The figure stood up and ripped the sword out of the gouge in the concrete it had created, revealing itself to be the armored form of Asuna Kagurazaka, armored up in sections of plate mail like a European knight, the quartet of bells in her hair jingling faintly over the chaos of the combat area.

The crab droid advanced on her, intent on smearing her into the pavement, but she turned with a flutter of her red ponytails and swung her sword down in a rapid, one-handed arc that cleaved the armored tank down the middle in a single stroke that made it look easy. She turned and hacked into a pair of infantry units, using her oversized sword as more of a bludgeon than a blade.

A few feet away, Setsuna stood in the center of a dozen droids, _Yuunagi_ held in a reverse grip in her left hand, her artifact _Sica Shishikushiro_ in her right hand. She blocked a strike from one of the droids with the bracer on her left arm, then retaliated with a single, graceful thrust of her wakizashi into the droid's head. A small explosion of the droid's core puffed out of its frame before it collapsed to its knees before her.

Turning as the rest of the droids encroached to attack her at once, she released a pressurized burst of ki to blow them back and stun them momentarily and then, aware of the theatrical nature of her role, threw the wakizashi into the air, switched _Yuunagi_ into her right hand, and lowered herself into a kendo stance, channeling her ki into the blade. "_Ougi_," she whispered. "_Hyakuretsuoukazan_!"

She spun faster than the eye could follow, drawing a circle of ki twenty feet across with her blade. As she came back to her original position and stance, lending to the belief that she hadn't moved, the charged energy exploded outward, shattering the remaining droids in the area, leaving Asuna and Setsuna standing tall, back to back, amidst the sea of wrecked enemy forces.

"Holy shit!" Yuuna exclaimed, nearly dropping her casters at the raw destructive force unleashed by her two classmates.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Yuuna," Asuna said with a grin, her twin ponytails trailing dramatically in the breeze.

"Wh-what the hell was that?" the black-armored girl stammered. "Those guys were about to kick our asses, then you two just come out of nowhere and bam!" She slammed her right fist against her left forearm for emphasis.

"We can't let our allies be defeated so easily," Setsuna said by way of explanation, glancing toward the battles below, then she turned her attention back and caught the wakizashi by its hilt as it came down.

"Yeah, what kind of heroes would we be then?" Asuna chuckled.

Up at the main camp above, Kazumi turned her attention from her classmates below back to her monitors. The mages, the so-called 'hero units' were beginning to show up in force now. Around her, Sayo drifted from screen to screen, watching the displays intently. "Ohh, Kazumi-san, this is so exciting!"

The reporter nodded to her ghostly companion. "I know. Makes me wish I could get out there and kick some butt myself." But her job as the reporter on the scene for this event came first. It was a shame that she wouldn't be able to do that documentary after all. Maybe if she could keep this platform afterwards and make use of its 'theater mode.' Shaking that thought off for now, she grinned and raised her microphone.

"**Take heart, brave knights of Mahora! Allied reinforcements have arrived! The commanding generals of the Mage Knights Defense Brigade have entered the battlefield! Work closely with and support the commanders to maximize your score!"**


	22. Home Field Advantage

**A/N:** Apologies for the long delay in getting this chapter out. As usual, it's been sitting ready for about two months, but delays in assembling the soundtrack have held it up. I assure you, that for the last two chapters of Mages vs. Mars (yes, that's right, TWO MORE CHAPTERS OF EPIC, omg-get-your-awesome-immunization-shots) will not see the same soundtrack delay issues that the first two did. With that said, get back in there and let's see that clanker body count rise! As always, don't get reading until you've got the soundtrack ready to play, and be sure you follow the included instructions as to what to play when.

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* * *

"I never realized until that day just how serious battles really were. It opened my eyes to what it meant for me as a healer, sworn to save every life that I can."  
- Konoka Konoe_, 'On a Wing and a Storm'_

**Chapter XXI  
****Home Field Advantage**

_June 24, 2007  
__Defense Point Bravo, Second Defense Line  
__1802 hours_

"Shit, they've got us boxed in here!" a high school student shouted, ducking his head back inside the tram just as a droid's strip beam struck the doorway where he had been. He and seven other defenders had been caught in the open by a marauding crab droid and its half-dozen infantry escorts, the enemy attack eliminating two of them and forcing the remainder to take cover inside the tram that had been halted in the middle of the street and evacuated when the enemy had originally launched their attack.

Deeper inside the tram, two more students stuck their wands out the windows, firing blindly at the droids besieging them. Return fire from the droids rattled the tram, the heavier repeating blasts from the crab droid causing the tram to rock on its tracks.

A pressure wave suddenly burst in the middle of the group of droids, scattering the infantry and crushing the 'head' of the crab droid. The defenders cautiously stuck their heads out to watch the enemy armor unit collapse bonelessly to the ground, trailing smoke from its joints.

"What the hell was that?" another student asked, looking about at the weapons held by the small squad. "None of our weapons can do that!"

"Look!" called out a pint-sized high school girl with bright green eyes and short brown hair curled up at the ends, carrying a magical rocket launcher half as large as she was. "Up on the roof!"

The others in the ersatz squad followed her gaze to see Kataragi standing at the apex of a convenience store's roof, snapping the fingers of his right hand almost casually, each snap of his fingers resulting in the destruction of two or more droids.

"It's Kataragi!"

"Kataragi-sensei is here!"

---

_Mahora University Engineering Division Showcase Hall  
__Defense Point Bravo Central Defense Area  
__The Same Time_

Caught completely off-guard by the sudden droid assault, the defenders of Defense Point Bravo soon found themselves fighting on a ferocious defensive within the main camp of the University, outnumbered nearly five-to-one, holding on by sheer force of will. A two-man team of sport shooters slid into cover behind the Troop Transport Warthog on display as part of the Future Force Warrior exhibit, firing their magic casters blindly at enemies over the hood and beneath the undercarriage.

"I'll stay here and draw their attention!" the taller of the two called over the noise, his mage coat open to reveal a tan longcoat and jeans, reminiscent of an American West cowboy, this image underscored by the brown cowboy hat worn over his long brown hair. "You sneak around the side and frag 'em!"

"Got it!" his partner answered, then leaned around the side of the barricade to scope the layout of the area as the cowboy continued to blindly fire his carbine-type magic caster over the top of the Warthog. What he saw caused him to grin and reach for his cell phone. "Hey, quit shooting and check this out!"

The cowboy risked a glance to spot Touko Kuzunoha amidst a swarm of droids, her katana flashing silver in the overhead lighting as she cleaved through the mechanical monstrosities as though they were constructed of warm butter.

"Whoa, I didn't expect that Touko-san would be participating," the cowboy said.

A Tanaka droid armed with a high-frequency resonance blade came at her from a blind spot, but before either student could shout a warning or fire at the droid, the kendo club sponsor's head whipped around, followed by an outside crescent kick to the droid's head that snapped its entire body around in the opposite direction and down onto its knees. A decapitating horizontal stroke of her blade finished it.

"Yes!" the cowboy's partner cried out. "I got a great pic of that panty shot just now!"

"No way, let me see!"

---

_Defense Point Delta, Beyond the Tatsumiya Defense Area  
__The Same Time_

Mei smiled as she summoned her artifact and brought her left hand across her body, fingers wavering as red magical energy began to swirl around her. "I get it!" she said. "As long as they think it's all part of the game, we're free to use our powers without limitation!" She closed her eyes. "_Naple maple a la mode..._"

---

_Exact Location Unknown, Somewhere in the Battle Area  
__1805 hours_

Though the battle was taking place far from her current location, Chao could hear the semi-distant clatter of the ongoing combat between the student defenders and her relentless droid army. Though untrained and equipped with obsolete magic weapons, the civilians were proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Of course, her droids were specifically programmed to use only their 'strip beam' against the students, as opposed to the myriad of other attack options that they, designed as anti-Covenant infantry, were programmed with.

A quartet of drone funnels whispered through the air around and behind her as she made her way through the deserted streets. The drones were designed using technology similar to the 'sentinels' that John-117 had encountered on Installation 04, and armed with potent energy beams powered by a combination of science and magic; they were essentially self-sufficient versions of the Galilean nonlinear energy rifle she had designed. Their only drawback was their immense power consumption; they could only function in the magically-charged air of the Mahora festival.

The communications interface in her battle armor began to buzz. Aside from looking snazzy, the armor contained a number of functions: it held a rudimentary AI whose sole purpose was to control the Casseiopeia installed on the back of her armor, watered-down strength enhancers borrowed from the Spartan-II program, a small personal energy shield, and the ability to channel electricity to any part of the suit without electrocuting herself. She reached to her belt and tapped the communications control.

"_Unit 408 reporting, Master,"_ an emotionless male voice said into her ear. It was one of her commander units, a semi-independent model with bulky armor plating and full-face helmets. They were nowhere near as independent as any of her fully-autonomous creations, such as Chachamaru or the only surviving ITSU, Number Thirteen, but for field army commanders, they had all the independence they needed.

"Go ahead," she responded, almost boredly. Things weren't due to get interesting just yet.

"_Enemy mage commanders have deployed to the field,"_ the droid reported. _"Confirmed thus far are Sakurazaki Setsuna, Kagurazaka Asuna, Sakura Mei, Kuzunoha Touko, Kataragi, Takane Goodman. As predicted, they are concentrated on the areas around the enemy main camp. We have sustained a total casualty rate of forty-six percent of the first wave. Would you like the casualty rate broken down by squad?"_

"No, that won't be necessary. Continue the operation as planned."

"_As you command, Master."_

The communications network Chao was utilizing for this battle was interconnected, allowing her to communicate with all her field commanders and her comrades without having to change frequencies. "Hakase, begin the incantation. I'll deal with some of the troublemakers on the ground here, then join you as planned. Chachamaru, Tatsumiya, Unit Thirteen, prepare yourself for your individual tasks."

She listened as her four 'generals' gave their responses and reported their situations, then stopped and turned to stare directly at a hazy shimmer of displaced air. The special forces model battle droid, an anti-Sangheili unit that shared the same design as Chachamaru, excepting the long flowing cloak and the six-foot-length electrostaff in its right hand, disengaged its active camouflage generator. She knew that there were two more special forces units nearby, both of which featured the 'younger' Chachamaru body.

"Master, we have deployed the elite units to each target zone as you requested," the staff-wielding 'leader' reported to her. "Active camouflage is functioning normally, we hold the element of surprise. We are ready to strike on your command."

Chao grinned menacingly at the droid. "Good. All units are to remain in position until I give the order, at which point they'll mop up whatever Tatsumiya leaves behind. Should she not leave anything, then standing orders are to engage the enemy forces and disrupt their chain of command wherever possible."

The droid inclined its head slightly. "As you command, Master." It vanished with a static flicker as it engaged its active camouflage again.

Reaching down to a pouch in her belt, Chao produced a portable holographic projector in her right hand and studied her tactical map. The student defense force, even with the assistance of the so-called 'Hero Units,' was being pushed back to their third and even fourth defense lines, on all fronts except the one designated 'Echo.' A real military veteran was in charge of the defenses there, and it showed from the artillery barrages, the interlocking fields of fire, the superb cover and coordination of the defense forces there. If she allowed her mindless minions to continue their suicidally-rash frontal assaults, 'Echo' and its defenders could easily demolish her entire army. She would have to personally redistribute her forces there.

"Units Five-Twelve, Three-Sixteen, Four-Eighty, and associated platoons, circle to the east of Point 'Echo' and approach through the undefended forests of Point 'Delta,'" she ordered, turning the map with the fingers of her right hand. "All other units assigned to 'Echo,' continue with your current attack pattern. Special forces group Bravo, disable the enemy artillery. Komodo attack unit, divide your walkers into three forces. Attack up the beach with one, and use the other two forces to create a pincer movement. Prior rules of collateral damage rescinded. Bring down any buildings you must."

The 'Komodo Dragon' heavy walker was a vehicle Chao had designed as an answer to Covenant vehicles to replace the SP42 Cobra anti-vehicle artillery and MAAT-9 Wolverine anti-aircraft vehicles that had been lost when the factory that built them was destroyed in a terrorist attack. A massive six-legged walker the size of a city bus, it featured a cannon on its upper right surface that was at once an anti-vehicle railgun and a beyond-line-of-sight artillery cannon with over four times the penetration power of the 90mm tungsten penetrator of the M808B Scorpion. Underslung beneath the fuselage was a double-barreled rapid-fire auto-cannon that could elevate and depress to engage enemy vehicles and aircraft with equal efficiency, and from the rear of the walker hung a turret-mounted 30mm Vulcan machine gun for anti-infantry purposes.

Of course, in order to avoid civilian casualties at this battle, she'd drastically dumbed down the power of the Komodo walker the same way she'd done to the rest of her forces. The main cannon, unfortunately, had to go completely offline; there was no way to reduce the power of a railgun while still retaining any semblance of functionality. That still left the two underslung weapons that could be fitted with purpose ammunition and used in battle. Not to mention the unit's heavy armor, built to withstand a sustained barrage of plasma mortars, would be almost impossible for the civilians to destroy.

Again, she listened as acknowledgments to her orders poured in over her battlenet, looking down as the disposition of her forces assaulting 'Echo' changed to reflect their new orders. She smirked as she mentally tallied the score: six platoons and two dozen 'crab' droids continuing the frontal assault, soon to be joined by nine Komodo walkers, while three platoons and eight walkers circled around to the east, the remaining eight walkers circled to the west, and her camouflaged special forces group, armed with her 'special ammunition' and the electrostaves, went after the enemy artillery.

If the enemy commander at 'Echo' was expecting more of the same tactics from her forces, then he or she was in for a surprise. "Your move."

---

_Exact Location Unknown, Somewhere in the Battle Area  
__The Same Time_

"Orders confirmed, Master. Initiating part one of main attack force," came the mechanical speech of Chao's main ground-force commander. Shutting off his wrist radio, the sole surviving ITSU waited patiently in a dimly-lit underground room that was one of the Martians' makeshift war rooms. He laid erect, still partially connected to what looked like a large engineer droid. He was in no need of repairs; the massive droid was finishing applying his new upgrades. ITSUki grinned proudly as he scanned his new armor, which showed signs of recent polish. His newer, bulkier body included a motion tracker in addition to the extra inch of armor that covered his whole body. He knew he had impressed his master, enough for this nice present. Too bad he didn't finish off the meatbag from two days prior, but as long as Chao was pleased, he had no major complaints.

In front of him was a detailed map of Mahora and it's magical focus points, including sewer, subway, and alley paths that were highlighted in multiple colors. The metal assassin continued analyzing the map as he remained partially locked in place. Raising his radio once again to his steel lips, he resumed issuing orders. "Units Three-Seven-Six, One-Eight-Seven, Two-Two-Five, and Three-Two-One, circle your forces around and support the 3rd Locust Assault Battalion currently making their way to the 'Delta' target point. Focus on driving the enemy out of the residential areas, this will make it easier for the Locusts to breach the main 'Delta' gate." The 13th ITSU paused scanning the maps and regarding the different reports being called in.

"Squads Six-Five, Two-Eight-Four, and Twelve, continue your way through the sewers, link up with the remaining forces of Squad Three-Zero-Five, and from there flank the forces at 'Foxtrot's' fourth defense line. An unexpected ambush should be enough to cause them to rout; by reports they're only barely holding. Locust Division Thirty-Four, fall back from 'Foxtrot' and meet up with the 5th Locust assault battalion currently advancing on the heavily weakened 'Bravo' target point."

The battle was going well on the western front as opposed to the eastern front, where they were sustaining considerably heavy losses while gaining very little ground. Still, if Foxtrot and Bravo were to fall, he could order a combined pincer movement on Alpha, which was already cut off from their main reinforcements.

ITSUki smirked as he disconnected himself from the engineer; his upgrades finished. As he dressed himself for battle, he recalled to himself Chao's orders: "This is all for the good of the human race, we cannot sacrifice the lives of many for the comfort of few. We are all expected to do our part. Disregard the losses, the city is ours to take." He nodded silently and finished fastening a tactical set of Kevlar armor. ITSUki equipped his gauntlets and greaves, then moved to fasten the large cloak that hung from his shoulders by his pauldrons. The automaton paused again, before gesturing with his hands towards a seemingly empty corner.

Out of the shadows stepped four elite Chachamaru units, all identical to the original down to the hair, with the addition of cloaks and electrostaves. Another gift from Chao, his own 'MagnaGuard' units, intelligent, stealthy, and lethal. Fine specimens, worthy of being called sisters. The closest one carried an additional object, ITSUki's command helmet, a control center unto itself, his final present from his master. With this, he could command all the units on the battlefield effortlessly. It was a beautiful piece of armor, that included the dual antennae, focused audio-receptors, and five separate ocular sensors. The MagnaGuard nodded and handed ITSUki his helmet, falling back in line with the others.

"We await your orders brother," stated all four in monotone unison. ITSUki said nothing and placed the helmet over his head that sealed itself on with a small 'hiiiissssss' sound. He turned to regard his sisters before raising his arm one last time. "Main force, move into positions."

---

_Third Defense Line, Defense Point Echo  
__1808 hours_

The third defense line was practically empty. The only ones there were the various field guns, anti-tank guns, a platoon of soldiers in various emplaced positions, an Arlington Magic Society gun mage in black-multicam gear, and Lorenzo. He stood, unhelmeted, in the center of the little stretch of a plaza, his command Warthog to the rear of him. In the midst of the ongoing artillery barrage, he had retreated all but the assembled forces back to the fourth defense point, while maintaining the illusion of a fortified third defense point. One does not give out ground easily, having foreseen this when he had seen the nature of the student defense forces.

"Antiquated magic weapons, long phased out by the ones in the Magic World and the Arlington and Sandhurst schools. It's no wonder we rely on Springfield's partners to fortify our defenses. And even then, they occupy only vital points," Lorenzo said, as he watched the android army form below him, their frontline force composed of crab walkers. He chewed on an empty cartridge case, holding his rifle. He was siphoning the magic power in the cartridge case to supplement his own, and was watching the events below him unfold in an enhanced vision.

The thunder of the allied artillery from above and behind them slowly died out, the gunners of the Type 96 field guns no longer able to sustain their barrage without taking the risk of raining 15cm shells down on their own forces. Lorenzo watched the droids halt their advance momentarily, taking advantage of the lull in the defenders' artillery fire in order to consolidate their forces. He rolled the partially-chewed brass casing between his teeth idly as he stood with one foot up on a balcony railing, a modern-day MacArthur.

"An organized defense best suited by those who grew up watching video games," the other AMS mage said, holding two standard issue weapons: Heckler und Koch MP7A1Ms, equipped with the usual hammerspace magazines. "You can see it. The only ones of good note would be this outfit of rag tags you got yourself into, and only because a good majority of them are woodsball paintballers or airsoft enthusiasts. If we had time, we could've pulled some heavy muscle here from Korea."

"Yeah...but this is all we've got," Lorenzo said, before spitting the now spent cartridge case to the ground. "Anti-tank guns at the ready? FIRE!"

Before him and around in the buildings, a volley of mobile cannons and recoilless rifles opened up, the ranks of the crab walkers started to erupt with many going down. That was the cue, as the enemy robots rushed the position, which now opened up in a barrage of machine gun fire, mainly Armor Piercing Incendiary, and bolts of orange magic, a odd mixture of formidable penetration and fire magic. These would initially penetrate the harder skin of the robot, before blossoming in a directed cone outwards from the point of penetration; a magic gun version of a shaped charge warhead, each shot strong enough to rival a nine pound HEAT warhead.

The rush was slowed, but not stopped, as several enemy combatants leapt over the defensive positions, twirling in mid air to catch the unlucky few with strip beams who laid there, knocked out and naked. Landing, they barely had time to straighten up before being blasted backwards, victims of small-arms fire from Lorenzo and the other Arlington Magic Society mage. Even when disproved by Mythbusters, the only reason these bots were knocked back was the pure penetration and stopping power that came from Lorenzo. Firing from the hip and chewing another cartridge, he fired a modified version of the penetration spell, which sacrificed greater penetration for pure knockback power. The knockback power, coupled with whatever was left of the penetration and the fire magic quickly decimated the bots, as Lorenzo stood there, calmly waiting on the enemy's next move.

They wouldn't keep him waiting.

---

_Final Defense Line, Echo Defense Point  
__The Same Time_

Maria stood to the side of the great big armored box placed behind the artillery, their final trump card against Chao's possible armored demons, finishing the systems check on the weapon. The rolling thunder of the artillery guns had gone silent, leaving a temporary ringing in her ears. The artillery crews were now spending their time cooling their field pieces, restocking ammunition, seeing to any mechanical problems that had come up during the course of the barrage, and waiting for their forward observers to report new enemy positions to shell.

Along the perimeter of the plaza that had become the 'artillery pit' for Defense Point Echo, thirty figures concealed by reverse-engineered active camouflage gathered to observe the artillery crews, their hazy silhouettes further concealed by the low cloud of smoke hanging over the plaza from the continual artillery barrage.

"Targets have been confirmed," a feminine robotic voice said, quietly enough to be concealed by the noise of the artillery pit.

"Roger," another answered. "Eliminate all hostiles."

In the command hut, sensors started tripping in the outer perimeter. Each alarm meant that the enemy was five meters closer to their positions. The Arlington Magic Society mage on standby got a glimpse of a captured image, which showed nothing until he looked properly and noticed a humanoid distortion. The infrared was hazy, smaller and colder than it should have been, but it had a similar outline. He grabbed his guns, two Fabrique National P90M submachine guns, the usually clear plastic case switched to a full metal one.

"They're here! Infiltration units!" he yelled, catching many of his comrades by surprise. Frankly, none of them had been anticipating contact with the enemy this soon.

It was too little, too late.

At the edge of the plaza, twenty of the droids disengaged their active camouflage, revealing the shorter, short-haired 'younger' form of Chachamaru. Half of them bore FAMAS assault rifles, the other Heckler und Koch MP5k submachine guns, and all twenty opened fire at the artillery positions. Screams of surprise and pain pierced the downtime noise of the artillery pit as the students manning the guns and their defenders disappeared within black spheres that quickly consumed them, which then disappeared just as quickly, leaving no trace of the victim behind.

The defenders took cover behind whatever was available, returning fire at the enemy special forces, the clatter of MA5C assault rifles and BR55HB-SR battle rifles ringing out over the plaza. Energy shielding flashed over the feminine-model droids, enough to stop a few bursts of fire, but not enough to protect them from the full force of the defenders. A handful of the droids collapsed, their frames pockmarked with bullet holes.

Three AMS Mages stood in the forefront, firing their weapons. Exhibiting a form of Arma Salto even more proficient than Lorenzo, they dodged the fire, as the black spheres burst all around them, some merely inches from touching them. Two of the mages, both armed with P90Ms, jump-kicked two bots, firing at them in mid flight to throw their targeting systems off. The commandos may be quick to match Lorenzo and Maria strategically, but tactically, they were slowed by the need to process information from various sources, normally limited as well, and as such, some fired into their own ranks, while the rest were being quickly mopped up by the agile gun mages of the Arlington Magic Society.

The twenty units at the perimeter of the plaza were not the only threat, however. The remaining ten units, completely identical in appearance to Chachamaru, the leaders of the three-droid special forces teams, kept their camouflage engaged as they moved into the plaza itself, ignoring the presence of the gun mages for now to focus on their primary targets, the artillery crews. Two leapt over the nearest field gun, disengaging their camouflage as they struck, electrical cables attached directly to their reactors lashing out to strike two of the personnel crewing that particular gun, sending an electrical discharge into the hapless students identical to the effects of a taser.

Maria was not unaware of this, and had gotten a pump action shotgun herself. But before she could react, an android uncloaked before her, a six-foot length of metal held in its hands. The two ends of the staff ignited in hissing electrical arcs as the elite unit drove the weapon forward toward Maria. Only a quick roll allowed her dodge the electrostaff, which was now piercing the side of the box. She quickly leveled her shotgun at the weapon and fired, the 10-gauge slug breaking the thing in half and leaving one sparking half of the mostly-ruined weapon still in the droid's hand.

"Exceptional reflexes," the droid vocalized, as though to itself. "Activating advanced anti-Sangheili combat routines." A humming noise filled the air, ionized particles in the air around the unit causing Maria's hair to stand on end, as the droid's advanced combat algorithms predicted Maria's shots and presented an armored plate in its arm to absorb two slugs.

The shots sparked off a shimmering energy shield, the fact that the shield remained active following two close-range shotgun blasts speaking for the strength of the shield. The droid rotated the broken electrostaff to hold it like a baton and then swung, catching the Agent's injured arm right at the fracture point. A mild electric shock, nowhere near the intensity that would have been delivered from the full staff, coursed through Maria's arm, along with the force of the impact breaking her forearm, sending the gun mage to the concrete screaming. The emotionless expression of the droid conveyed no feelings of regret, sympathy, or mercy at the whimpering and openly crying agent, who was knocked on her side, still clutching the shotgun.

A panel in the droid's right palm opened, ejecting two 7.62mm bullets with glowing black tips, which the droid then clenched between the fingers of its fist. As it reared back its right arm, electricity beginning to arc into the hand, its head snapped forward as multiple penetration bolts struck its shield, reducing its output.

The droid turned its head to find one of the artillery crews, reacting to Maria's screams of pain, facing it down, all holding MA5C rifles. Dropping the ruined electrostaff, the droid grabbed a sidearm from its hip, and unloaded it at the group of students, taking out half an artillery crew before the weapon ran dry, its shields also depleted from the return fire that it had taken. Before it could grab a second gun or reload the firearm at hand, its head exploded in a mass of plastic and electronics, toppling forward from the blast, revealing Maria, who laid on her back, glasses askew. She had fired the shotgun one handed, and although her shot was accurate, it had sapped her of her strength. The smoking weapon laid beside her, as she rolled over to her side clutching her broken arm.

---

_Third Defense Line, Echo Defense Point  
__1811 hours_

Frantic fighting took hold, as the forward thrust was slowed, the two dozen crab walkers whittled down to four from the endless barrage of heavy machine gun and anti-tank cannon fire, when the new arrivals came into view. The tank shells took down the rest of the crabbers, as they were now referred to by those on the line, before focusing on the nine new types of walkers. Unfazed by the small caliber high explosive weapons, only a combined volley took one down, as Lorenzo looked worried. Just then, to both his sides, more enemy combatants appeared. Some toppled buildings, trapping defenders underneath the rubble. Lorenzo dodged strip beams, while the students around him fell to the ground naked.

It was the flanking maneuver that he had foreseen, and as he danced his way around the strip beams that were converging on him, he smiled. His dwindling defenders fired back, making each shot worth it, as strip beams bounced off or were absorbed by the defenses they crouched behind, taking five or more droids before being hit. This was a defense point. Not some unruly gaggle of kids in the open, but trained boys and girls taking cover, firing single shots, and hitting almost every time.

"HOLD THE LINE!!! WE NEED TO HOLD THE LINE!!! REFORM YOUR RANKS AND HOLD THE LINE!!!" Lorenzo yelled from behind cover, sending more of the droids down.

His partner wasn't so lucky. He had been diving for cover, when in mid-air, six separate beams got him. His weapons skidded across the smooth flagstone and stopped to a halt against one of the defenses as he, naked to his boxers, landed in the intended cover, throwing a few of the defender's aims off as his unconscious 175-pound bulk slammed into them.

---

_Fourth Defense Line, Defense Point Echo  
__1814 hours_

Three minutes passed as the defenders from the fourth line watched the battle one hundred meters below and in front of them. A line of jersey barriers, bunkers, anti-tank guns, mortar pits, machine gun nests, and recoilless rifle nests covered the way up and around the fourth plaza used as the fourth defense line. One thing was missing from this picture; there were no tanks stationed in fighting pits as had been emplaced at the previous three defense lines.

The defenders here watched as destroyed crab walkers were crushed underneath the legs of the new walkers. The central attack force had lost two of those new walkers, only because the artillery, what crews were managing to still function despite the attack of the special forces, were focusing on them. The machine gun nests in the third line were only firing sporadically, the defenders taken out by strip beams or, more often now, debris from the buildings around the third plaza that were falling. In the center of it all was Lorenzo, who had taken out multiple infantry and was continuing to terrorize the dismounted forces while dodging fire from the walker.

---

_Right Flank, Fourth Line of Defense, Defense Point Echo  
__The Same Time_

Katerine stood before the two tanks in her column. In front of her was a canvas screen that was made to resemble a wall, visual camouflage from the attackers coming from the lake area. The effects of the World Tree had exposed her true form. Already her tail was out, while her feline ears had formed and relocated to the top of her head, more hair growing where her human ears had been. Didn't matter, with a festival like this, there were many people dressed like catgirls, allowing her to seem like she was just one of them, therefore hiding her heritage in plain sight. Not only that, her standard Marine helmet covered the top and sides of her head anyway, although she had to cut out holes for her ears in order for her to feel comfortable. What she did like, was the fact the inhibitors on her strength and agility had been removed. In effect, she was a SPARTAN-II in Marine clothes.

"Our commander is out there and in danger," she called out to her group, a force of two tanks fitted with modified ramming devices/plows and automated turrets. Behind them were Universal Carriers and Warthogs, fully sealed to prevent strip beams from taking out the occupants. The Universal Carriers sported an anti-tank gun that was stabilized inside a thin armored turret, while the Warthogs were of the M41 light anti-aircraft gun variety.

"Let's drive these clankers back to the lake! Fireteam Charlie! Follow me!" she yelled, before taking her large claymore at hand, and slicing through the faux wall.

The Centurions followed behind her, their sheer bulk tearing down the canvas cover, firing their main guns as soon as they were clear. _"Target those walkers!"_ Chisaki Yoshikawa, commanding 'Kusanagi,' the first Centurion out of cover, called over the battlenet.

Operating under field coordination, they concentrated their fire on each of the heavily-armored 'Komodo' walkers one at a time. The first walker exploded, its core vanishing in a fireball as the legs cartwheeled into buildings on either side, signaling the arrival of Fireteam Charlie reinforcements. From the center line, mortars started firing, airborne UAVs replacing ground forward observers to provide a clear picture of the enemy's positions, cross-referencing with continually-updating IFF tag locations to keep Fireteam Charlie's personnel from coming to harm. The shells arched up and over the advancing reinforcements and into the rows of Tanaka bots waiting their turn to push forward, paving the way for the armor to advance, robot parts flying in all directions.

"_All armor, form up!"_ Koike's voice called over the battlenet. _"Let's hit 'em where it hurts!"_

On the left flank, the column led by Koike moved out as well. Similar in composition, Koike led from a Universal Carrier, standing in the turret to get a good view of the unfolding counter-advance. Chao's army had entangled themselves in trying to overrun the third defense point, where its occupants were either fighting in close quarters or knocked out. Lorenzo was in the center of this all, his pistols out, and taking down droid after droid after droid who tried to get the upper hand of this young and agile man. He was growing tired, but the return of reinforcements allowed him to keep faith, and spotting an opening, ducked into a partially destroyed structure, where he kept up his war of attrition.

Katerine sailed ahead of her escorts, which, using armor-piercing SABOT, were devastating the new walkers. The weakness of the 'Komodo' walkers, Echo's defenders were discovering, was that their armor was purpose-built to resist plasma, which was little more than superheated air, and which the magic caster fire resembled. The armor was still hardened against normal ammunition, but armor-piercing weaponry was frighteningly-effective against it. Too, being built as a walker rather than a treaded vehicle granted them the extra mobility of the Scarabs they had been designed to kill, but also gave them the same joint vulnerabilities, a weakness that the Centurions were more than happy to take advantage of.

Katerine though, bull-rushed her way into the droids, a force to be reckoned with. She swung her massive blade in a broad horizontal arc, crushing more than cleaving a quartet of droids caught in the arc of the swing. Turning, she blocked a strip beam with the flat of her blade, the masterwork weapon resisting destruction at the hands of the beam, then rushed the offending droid and impaled it on the blade. Her arms tingled at the electrical discharges that went up the blade of her claymore, soaked in oil, allowing the setting sun to cause the normally non-reflective black blade to glitter an unearthly sheen of dark red as she swung the blade around once more, the impaled droid sliding fluidly off and tripping another of its fellows. A dozen droids turned to train on her, and were caught unawares when the two tanks behind her literally steamrolled over them, breaking their backs with the plows fitted to their fronts, crushing their armored frames beneath fifty-two tons of steel. Warthogs flanked the tanks and Universal Carriers, maintaining a low rate of speed in order to keep pace with the slower vehicles, their turret chain guns blazing to keep the enemy infantry from boarding the heavier vehicles.

The speed of the two counter offensives took the droids by surprise, many falling before they realized what had happened. Mowed down by the plow-equipped tanks, their bodies pushed aside and half broken, only to be crushed into pieces by the troop laden Universal Carriers, which had used their modification to fire the anti-tank guns at the walkers, contributing to their overall damage and allowing the real tanks to only need one SABOT round to wound it before it was hammered to oblivion by the vehicles and dismounted infantry following the tanks.

Katerine though, took the cake for creativity. Having dodged the endless amount of fire heading her way, her godly agility due mostly in part to her heritage, she had scrambled up the front leg of one of the 'Komodo' walkers. Expecting the walker to be nothing more than a large automaton, she was surprised to discover a hatch for crew entry behind the ball turret on top of the craft. Bringing her claymore up, she drove the weapon into the seam of the hatch and then used it like an oversized saw to hack open a seam large enough for her to fit through. Leaving the blade embedded in the walker's metal side, she pulled an M90A combat shotgun from the magnetic cradle on the back of her armor and methodically pumped 10-gauge slugs into the heads of the driver, gunner, and tank commander, then slung the weapon and tossed the ruined droids out of the now-motionless walker.

"_First line clear, move up!"_ came the voice of Yamada Kenta, commander of the Centurion 'Tonbogiri' as well as the entire armored division of Fireteam Charlie.

Down on the ground, two other 'Marines' who had watched her board the walker stood staring up at her in awe as she ripped her claymore free, then looked down at them. "You two! Get up here! I need crew!"

They were more than happy to comply, scrambling up the leg of the walker and jumping into the cockpit, seating themselves at the driver and gunner controls, respectively. The controls were simple enough, and as the tanks separated to roll past either side of the hijacked enemy unit, raining death and destruction on the other walkers, she ordered her crew to turn the vehicle around and bring the droids' own weapons to bear against them. The forward underslung autocannons came about and began to shell the Tanaka droids, the new gunner having no qualms whatsoever about using an anti-vehicle weapon against infantry as he yelled into his headset, "Hah! How do _you_ like it!?"

Driving the walker wasn't an incredibly difficult task, which left the new pilot to glance back over his shoulder at Katerine. "Hey, what do you think the deal is with these black spheres, Lieutenant? I mean, our guys have been _disappearing_ when they've been getting hit by 'em, and the same thing's happening to those clankers."

Katerine was not a proper mage by trade, but she could sense that the spheres involved some form of magic. But she couldn't tell her mundane driver that. So she shrugged, and improvised. "No clue," she answered, checking out what all she could do from the tank commander's seat. "Maybe it's like the little teleporter grid that the Forerunners set up on the Halo rings."

"Makes sense, I guess," the driver said, bringing the right foreleg down directly on a previously-intact crab droid. He chuckled. "Hah, I wonder if I'm getting bonus points for splatters."

Katerine smiled at the Marine's enthusiasm, then ordered, "Second line clear, push forward!"

The Centurions of Katerine's squad fell into line on either side of the captured walker, the three heavy units shielding the Universal Carriers behind them, Warthogs moving ahead of the group to suppress the enemy infantry. Koike's assault force, several streets over, moved parallel along with Katerine's group toward the beach, methodically rolling over the enemies in their path.

---

_Defense Point Foxtrot, Second Defense Line  
__1820 hours_

Struggling to keep cool, the faltering mage forces had their hands full at the second defense line. The Martian armor had been stopped but only momentarily; more accurately, they had been slowed and not halted at all. The crab walkers had already began to advance literally over their fallen allies. It did however, give the retreating mages enough time to escape fully without taking further unnecessary casualties. But the Martians were quick to press the attack, eliminating contestants left and right, whoever did not seek cover or fall back.

"We can hold 'em! We can beat them!" came the somewhat-reassuring cry of a tall and muscular student with bleach blonde hair, the mage robes around his shoulders like a cape. In addition, he wore a black tank-top shirt with a flaming skull on the front and black sunglasses.

He was currently throwing as many explosives he could get his hands on over the makeshift barricade of the second defense line at the marching Martians. He wasn't sure if he was hitting any of them, but he didn't care much. As long as they weren't on the wall yet. They were having a good time for now, considering they built up certain sections of the barricade up to fifteen feet out of road-blocks, tables, and Martian bodies. The other contestants were a combination of crazy battle-hungry delinquents and cowardly high-school freshmen. They were the only ones who hadn't chosen to retreat.

"You crazy Tachibana-senpai?! There's too many of them, let's get the hell out of here, the third defense line has more supplies and heavier weapons!" stated a smaller student fearfully.

"No retreat! Real men don't retreat!" yelled the courageous Kanji Tachibana, grabbing hold of two rocket launchers, lifting them up to his shoulders, and firing them both twice at the nearest crab walker. The walker paused but seemed to shrug all four blasts off, though it showed signs of slowing down.

"Damn, these are some stubborn shit-heads... Don't they have weak points?" called one of the two biker-looking hoodlum brothers as they brought up a single crate filled with two power drains, ten grenades, one rocket canister, and five rifles.

"These are the last of the supplies!" called the other.

"Shit, that's all we got!?" called Kanji. "Feh! We can take these aluminum ass-holes with our bare hands! ...Maybe."

The last part was muttered of course, to keep up the mixed morale of the remaining defenders of the second defense line. Kanji nodded to himself, they could take out a bunch of the enemy infantry if they use the energy drainers and the grenades. They also could take out the front crab droid with the remaining rockets. He chuckled half-heartedly and adjusted his shades. "Let's take 'em out!" he roared to the other delinquents who hooted back arrogant affirmatives, before turning to the remaining freshman too scared to move. "When we start the attack, you guys scram!"

They nodded in unison, when the smallest, a thin young man with side-swept blonde hair and blue eyes who idolized Kanji, spoke up. "Are you sure you can handle that by yourself, senpai?"

"Ha! If that pipsqeak Takaki can give us all enough time to get here, then we can give you guys the opening to get to safety!" laughed Kanji, turning back to the random hoodlums and issuing orders to distribute the remaining weapons and ammo amongst those who would stay. They ceased fire, to conserve ammo and wait for the enemy to get closer.

"Don't shoot till you can see your own reflection in those fruity shades of theirs!" called one of the bigger auto-club members in a gruff voice, gripping an energy drain tightly in his left hand and three grenades in his right. Everyone, scared or not, readied their grenades and weapons.

The Martians were now right on top of them, literally, stopping at the wall of tables and fallen comrades, silently eager to eliminate the mage players on the other side. A single unit pulled out of the main group and looked at the barricade that stood between his men and their prey. He was different from the others, wearing a full helmet, elaborate armor and a cape. "A commander? He's mine..." whispered Kanji.

The droid's servos and joints could be heard quite clearly now, as he was not a meter from them now. Commander Unit 276 hesitated for a moment, but only a moment, and quickly drew a high-frequency sword. Unit 276 should have been faster.

"PUSH!!!"

On that command, the entire barricade came down before the commander could react, burying half of his body under the clusterfuck of miscellaneous materials. Kanji came rolling down with the rubble and in an epic move that would definitely win style points: he activated his grenade, and stuck it on 276's visor.

The commander could do nothing but lay there as small text appeared on his screen: "Remember, Blue Spider = Death. From, Chao." And soon commander 276 vanished in a brilliant cerulean flame burst.

Keeping his momentum so as to not take damage, he continued his roll and ended up on his ass exactly two feet from the organized mass of Martian infantry. He drew his weapons and began blasting into the group, taking out a few in the front. "NADES N' DRAINS!!!" cried Kanji as he fired at the dumbstruck clankers. As the oldest charged forward, the youngest fell back, running back up the road to the third defense line.

Like an icy Armageddon rain, electric blue filled the sky above Kanji's head. First the drainers landed, crippling the mob, and soon followed by the small barrage of grenades that wiped the avenue of the invaders, leaving only scraps of metal littering the street. But random infantry were the least of the would-be show-offs' worries, as the unaffected crab tanks charged forward to destroy the feeble resistance force that remained. Still shooting at their oversized foes, Kanji began to fall back to the street corner, with the crabs in hot pursuit. As luck would have it, the attacker was the one Kanji had injured earlier. Such was proven when two rockets collided with it's massive body with a booming explosion that shook the ground around them.

This proved a good distraction, good enough to save Kanji and the others at the front. The walker continued forward, despite limping now, now aiming at the rocketeer bikers. The red seeker eye flashed as the targeting computer locked in the profile silhouettes of the bikers, then began to glow as it charged up its beam to fire.

It was a pure stalemate, in a certain sense. The two rocket-wielding biker brothers vanished into the thick shroud that was their own clothes' remains and fell back to the ground, one landing on top of the other, unconscious from the impact of the blast itself. Yet when they fell, their weapons were empty. In apparent slow motion, the second rocket rain smashed into the primary crab's weakened armor, puncturing it and allowing the energy to flow into it's insides. The dying walker sparked, sputtered, and fell silent, powering down with a low 'Bvoooooooem' sound before crashing to the ground in front of the remaining forces. To them, cheers were in order.

"Yeah! What'd Kanji-senpai say?! We knew we could kick their asses!" howled the delinquents who were left. "They ain't got shit on us! This is our ho--!"

Now like a flaming Armageddon, an orange-gold now filled the air between the survivors and the already recovered Martians. In what looked like one giant blast, those left vanish in a cloud and came out stripped. It seems those with the biggest mouths tended to get shot first. Sure they took out one walker, but the crabs had learned from before to just crawl right over their fallen. Onward, upward, and over to victory.

Kanji was the only one who was missed by the strip beams, strange. He had gone to tie his shoe and therefore ducked under the massive strip wave.

Falling back onto his ass after realizing what just transpired, he began attempting to crawl away while still on his behind firing wildly and screaming at the oncoming armor. "COME ON YOU STUPID SOBs COME GET SOME, SHIT-TINS!!!" His shots were hitting more air than enemy, and the shots that did hit reflected of the tank's armor. Eventually cornered, he now laid against a small crate, wildly firing at the metallic predators.

_Click, Click, Click, Click_ was now the only sound that emitted from Kanji's now empty weapon. "...Shit..." cursed the proud Tachibana.

---

_Defense Point Foxtrot, Second Defense Line, Down the street  
__The Same Time_

"Aim for the turret, maybe we can cripple their weapons instead of wasting ammo on crippling the movement of one. It's worth experimenting with," came the voice of Takaki Sato, who was talking to the nearest Mahoran, who was already taking aim at the charging crabs.

Takaki then turned to Taiyo who was ready to run out and deal more damage to the enemy. Placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. "As soon as I give the order, grab Tachibana-san and drag him back to our location. We'll give you cover."

At this, Taiyo merely nodded and smirked.

"Wait...Wait...NOW, take their weapons!!!"

Before the final word left his lips, a rocket was already en route with a quick muttering of "_Jaculetur_" from the young man on stand-by. Taiyo was also already sprinting toward the fallen Kanji.

Kanji was still cursing randomly when he heard the attack command from behind him, followed by an exploding sound. He looked up to see a lone rocket shot whiz by him with a 'Fssshrrrooo' noise. The young Tachibana watched as the magic propelled explosive flew straight and true.

The walker didn't even seem to know what hit it. The rocket collided directly into the eye sensor, not the turret itself. However, it was quite a lucky break. Building speed at first, there was a loud screeching and crunching sound as it skidded to a stop, digging up pavement as it halted. Electricity surged around the head for a couple seconds, followed by a crackling. The head exploded into bits and pieces as the body smashed into the dug up ground below.

Takaki smiled brightly, his hunch may have been wrong but he had certainly stumbled upon something. "So not the turret itself but the eye sensor eh?"

That walker went down after one hit, when it normally takes eight to take the damn things down. That wasn't just a lucky break; that walker wasn't faulty. So now there was a way to take those things down with one hit? "Thank you, Hiro-kun," muttered Takaki to himself once more. "Better hurry up or we'll have this mopped up before you even show." Now not only could they win, but victory on home territory was pretty much guaran-damn-teed now.

"Yeah! Told you so you shit-tins!" laughed Kanji seeing the first one down.

Taiyo soon reached Kanji and grabbed him around the shoulder. "Come on, we're pulling back to the third line," said the elder Miyazaki as he began pulling Kanji away.

"What!? What'd'ya mean pulling back!? We're winning here man!!! We can beat them back!" objected the Tachibana, but Taiyo was not phased. He kept his cool, thinking the sooner they got back, the sooner he would be able to get to the fighting himself.

"You're the only one left Tachibana-san, we're falling back. Live to fight another hour."

Finally reaching Takaki's position; Kanji, who violently broke away from Taiyo's grip, decided to head up the road by himself, grumbling all the way up to next defense point. Takaki merely chuckled as he looked to Taiyo. "Leave him be, Kanji-kun's easily offended when his proud nature is questioned. Something about being a great Tachibana." He looked down the road at the recovering Martian forces, then he turned to two of the closest members of his squad. "You two, follow Kanji-kun up the street to third defense. Tell whoever's in charge there that the crabs are vulnerable in their main sensor, and see if you can get that same info to the other defense points but only if you can. The rest of us are headed back into the sewers, we're headed to the command post."

Both young men straightened up, and stated a clear "Yes, sir" in response before running off up the road.

What remained of the squad mobilized quickly and opened up the nearest man hole, and one by one climbed down into the sewers below. Takaki was the last, closing the hole behind him.

"You know, for how bad most sewers are supposed to smell, Mahora's don't really stink that much," laughed one of the random squad mates.

"Heh, maybe our shit just naturally smells nice," laughed another in response. It was good for them, to take their minds off the stress of fighting. And Takaki knew this, that was the only reason he chose to not point out that there was already footprints in the muck and the grime down here that the others didn't notice. They were bigger than a normal teenager's foot and the indentation showed the maker was quite heavy. And there was a lot of prints. This didn't smell right. In fact it reeked of enemy tactics.

---

_Forests Outside the Tatsumiya Shrine  
__1822 hours_

The forests were too densely packed to allow the crab droids access to travel through them toward the Tatsumiya Shrine, so the infantry was forced to travel without armor support, a situation that allied forces were all too anxious to take advantage of. Distant thumps of artillery fire and the clatter of the live weapons from Fireteam Charlie echoed through the forest, creating what would be an eerie and surreal environment, were the droid forces capable of being frightened or intimidated.

At one section of the forest, a squad of ten Tanaka droids came upon a forest clearing in which a dozen Mahorans lay strewn haphazardly amongst the foliage and fallen trees. Many of their robes were in various states of partial disintegration, and all of them appeared unconscious, suggesting that they'd been defeated by a previous group of droids. The group of droids currently on the scene paused momentarily to regard the fallen students, decided that they posed no threat, and moved on through the center of the clearing, heading toward the Tatsumiya Shrine.

Without warning, a military-grade strobe shot up into the sky, letting out a blinding flash of white light that momentarily overloaded the droids' visual sensors. Under the cover of the strobe, the 'unconscious' students suddenly rose from where they had lain, springing their ambush on the droid squad with a rain of magic caster fire and catalyst grenades. Three droids fell before they knew what had happened, and a fourth fell back, its torso crumpled, as a black-haired youth with a feral grin drew back his fist.

"Ambush!" one of the droids called out as it racheted its mouth open to fire at the surprise attackers. A caster beam struck its head, melting half of it and sending it crashing to the ground, its strip beam going wide and angling up into the trees.

More Mahorans came out of the woods behind both the ambush squad and the droids that had been ambushed, reinforcing their allies and catching the droids in a devastating crossfire. By the time the shooting ended, the droid squad had been decimated, and the ambushers had only lost three of their own.

Kotaro Inugami surveyed the aftermath. "Alright, clear these clankers out of here and get back in your positions," he said. "You guys that got shot, stay here and don't go resupply. You'll add to the image."

In other parts of the forest, clever defense forces were stymieing the droids with equal ferocity. Allied tactics ran the gambit from snipers high up in the trees picking off enemy units with the beam rifle casters, explosive traps using tripwire-rigged catalyst grenades, and more ambush units whittled away at the droids' numbers without significant casualties on the allied forces. The Allied Forces had feared the prospect of invading mainland Japan during the Second World War, and Tatsumiya's defenders were showing exactly the reason why.

---

_Narita Airport, Primary Runway  
__1824 hours_

Eight A6M Zero fighters, survivors from World War II that had been donated to the Mahora Aviation Club and maintained in perfect functionality over the years, sat in formation on the tarmac, their rumbling engines generating a cloud of white noise over the airport. It was almost as though time had regressed to the 1940s as the pilots of the planes, clad in authentic recreations of the pilot uniforms of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, walked out of the hangar, surrounded in two rows by other members of the Aviation Club who had not signed up for the event in time, each Aviation Club member cheering and waving hachimakis as though they were the flight crew of a Japanese aircraft carrier.

The pilots split up from their formation and moved to board their respective fighters as the airport's actual ground crew ran forward and pulled the wheel blocks from beneath the fighters and retreated to the edges of the runway, where they were joined by the Aviation Club members. The ground crew saluted the fighters and their pilots, reveling in the opportunity to have a part, no matter how small, in the battle.

From the cockpit of the lead Zero, cadet Colonel Stephanie Pierce, an American exchange student from the US Air Force Academy, returned the ground crew's salute, then tightened her helmet in place and checked her radio headset. _"Red Flight, cleared to launch, winds are calm,"_ the air traffic control tower crackled over the radio.

"Roger, Tower, Red Flight launching," she answered, then throttled up her aircraft, extended her left arm out of her open canopy, and circled it in the air three times before thrusting her arm forward. Then she closed her canopy and disengaged her brakes.

There was no roar of power as afterburners kicked in, no sudden slamming back into her seat from inertia as the fighter went from stationary to airborne in seconds, the way she would expect from the F-16C Fighting Falcon she was familiar with. This served to remind her, yet again, that she was flying an antiquated, propeller-driven aircraft instead of the multimillion dollar modern combat bird she was used to.

At an appreciable pace, the eight Zeroes rumbled down the runway and into the sky. With a precision born of countless hours of practice, the squadron of fighters took their places in a standard formation and then banked gracefully toward the World Tree, sunlight glinting from the surface of their wings.

Enclosed within the cockpit, the stick firmly gripped in her hand, feeling the fighter's gentle rocking and the omnipresent thrum of the engine, Stephanie allowed herself a small moment of peace, to relish the sensation of flight as she looked to her left, toward the sun sinking toward the horizon of Mahora. The flaming red ball of energy and heat drew ever closer to the edge of the earth, casting off the fiery rays of light that had inspired the war flag of the Empire of Japan.

_That's what I signed up for,_ she thought to herself. _To dance with the wings of angels, and touch the face of God._

"_Leader, orders?"_ her wingman, Nanaka Earhart, asked.

Reluctantly, she drew her attention away from the sunset, focusing on the fast approaching battleground. From her altitude, she could see the flamebursts of Echo's artillery, explosions of the destroyed crab droids across all defense points, and the flashes of magic and light in the forests around the Tatsumiya Shrine. "Ogata, Earhart, Mikamura, stay on me," she ordered, bringing her fighter around in a shallow arc toward the combat-rich streets. "Yosato, Johnson, Walker, Nagashi, do a rooftop flyby and judge ground fire concentration."

"_Roger that, we're flyin'."_

As though stepping out of one of the newsreels from that time period, the four Zeroes rolled into a sweeping dive, losing hundreds of feet of altitude as they swooped toward the embattled zone at rooftop level. Droid forces, recognizing the aircraft not to be of their own forces, began firing up at the fighters, infantry and crab droids alike. The droids scored occasional hits, but the beams didn't slow or seriously harm the buzzing fighters.

"_Red Six to Red Leader,"_ Johnson reported. _"Scattered small-arms fire but no dedicated Triple-A."_

"Copy that, Red Six. Cut across their axis to try and draw their fire." She looked down to make sure that her squad frequency was also tied in to the allied command and control center at Defense Point Charlie. "Mahora Command, this is Red Leader. We're on station and beginning our attack run."

Stephanie inverted her fighter and led her three wingmates on a screaming dive toward the battle, flying in on a northeastern course that would take them directly over the main thoroughfare leading from the plaza down to the lake.

---

_Defense Point Alpha, Fourth Defense Line  
__The Same Time_

Akira leaned back from a droid's punch, deflecting its arm with the shaft of her staff as she twisted the weapon to aim its business end at the droid's head. "_Jaculetur_!" she exclaimed, and a blue beam of energy lanced out of her staff that destroyed the droid's head and pitched its body over backwards.

To her left, Fuka sprayed fire from her submachine gun-like caster, then armed a catalyst grenade and threw it into the mass of advancing droids. The glowing blue sphere stuck to a droid's torso, glowing brighter for a moment before exploding and casting parts of the stuck droid in all directions.

Pale blue energy shields stretched from sidewalk-to-sidewalk across the street before the fourth defense line, a line of deployable covers that the defense forces had set in order to provide them cover from behind which they could attack the droids while remaining at least partially protected in their own right. Shouts and exclamations, call-outs of enemy locations, filled the air over the roar of allied caster fire and the hiss of droid strip beams.

Two heavily-armored crab droids marched up the street toward them, their menacing red seeker eyes sweeping across the street. Grimacing, Akira shouted a warning of their presence and started to move back in preparation to gather enough allies to take them down, when the loud roar of propeller engines washed over the street. A hailstorm of caster fire rained down on the tanks from the sky, the bolts powerful and numerous enough to punch holes in the armor and ignite their fuel cells, filling the street with a fireball that engulfed the tanks' remains.

Cheers rose from the defenders as four pairs of Zero fighters swooped over the street, the heavy magic casters mounted in place of the original machine guns blazing. Fuka and Fumika climbed on top of an already-wrecked crab droid and cheered the fighters exuberantly. Swept up in the moment, Akira raised her staff, smiling widely, and added her voice to the jubilant cheering.

Nearby, someone yelled "CHARGE!" and the entire defense force roared even louder in response, stampeding down the hill to meet the battered enemy forces. At the forefront, Setsuna and Asuna's highly-visible forms led the charge, weapons raised in the air, voices shouting above the noise. The droids took note of the charge, their adaptive strategic program coming into play, and met the charge of the Mahoran defenders with one of their own, giving a united vocal cry of their own to match the defenders.

A half dozen caster and strip beams shot into the opposing groups from either side, bringing down a small number of defenders and attackers, but the presence and attack of the Zeroes had pumped up the Mahorans, bringing forth their desire to get into things with their own hands. To this point in the battle, a small handful of melee clashes had occurred out of surprise or necessity, but everyone involved knew that this would be a hard, brutal melee brawl.

The two armies collided at the third defense line, the sheer physical strength of the droid forces sending over a dozen Mahorans flying back, concussed or worse. But the defenders bore in fearlessly, some would say recklessly, a sea of white robes and black steel hopelessly intermingled as combatants clashed staves, casters, and other varied and improvised weapons against the droids' fists and feet in a scene that hearkened back to the massive battles of the Warring States period.

Akira struck forward with her staff, its blunt end stunning a droid long enough for her to bring the heavy end down on the droid's head, her Jammer Ring giving her the power she needed to crush it flat. Four more moved to attack her from the flank and rear; to counter, she set her staff on her shoulder and spun in a circle, the differing ends of the staff knocking the droids back. She turned to face them, sweeping her staff low across the ground, knocking three of them down. Energy rushed through her body and she leapt up, her staff held aloft behind her, an orb of blue energy charging at its head. She swung the staff down and released the energy orb at the ground, where it burst and destroyed all four droids.

As she landed gracefully in the temporarily-cleared area, Fumika exclaimed, "That was awesome, Akira-san! You got a great powerup for your weapon!"

Akira smiled at the young ninja-in-training, but she wasn't so sure that it was a weapon powerup. She'd taken note of the fact that all her beam attacks had been blue, where most of the others' were white. Not only that, she'd felt the power of that charged attack flow _out_ from within. _Did I do that, just using the staff as a focus? Nothing was ever mentioned about powerups for weapons._

Down at the forefront of the battle, Asuna was a whirling firestorm of death and destruction, swinging her sword in hard, brutal arcs that crushed multiple droids at once, leaving their shattered, sparking hulks lying in her wake. One lucky droid managed to sneak in behind her and smash its forearm into the back of her head, but instead of dropping her, as it had expected, the redhead turned with a look of fury on her face. Lifting one hand from her sword, she grabbed the droid by its throat, lifted it from the ground, and chokeslammed it to the pavement at her feet, then twisted her sword around and impaled the fallen unit.

She left her sword in the ground as more droids moved in toward her. Leaping over one's head and landing behind it, she grabbed it around the waist and hauled up and back, performing a textbook German suplex that crushed the enemy unit's upper body against the pavement. Stepping back over to her massive blade, she ripped it out of the ground, the one enemy's body still attached to it, then turned into the enemy masses and swung with all her might, the impaled droid flying off and bowling down a number of its comrades.

Nearby, Setsuna's combat style stood in a stark contrast to Asuna's, each strike and thrust of her blades as graceful as Asuna's were brutal. She wasted not a single movement as she stepped in and out of the droid forces, a short thrust here severing one unit's connection with its central reactor, an almost-beautiful swing of her long blade there beheading three units at once. She wasn't even making use of her repertoire of Shinmeiryu maneuvers here; these droids didn't require that level of skill to defeat.

She lifted her artifact wakizashi in her left hand, focused, and then the single blade was suddenly sixteen, which spiraled independently into the air around her, a defensive swarm of blades that lashed out seemingly of their own volition, impaling the sixteen nearest droids to the ground, walls, or other obstacles. She gestured, and the blades all vanished in a flash, reappearing in her hand as the single primary blade.

A quartet of enemy drones buzzed over the battlefield, firing strip beam blasts down into the Mahoran ranks. As one such blast exploded on the ground near Setsuna, the half-demon looked up, glared, and then took a running leap toward a covered bus station, which she propelled herself off of and sailed gracefully through the air, using momentum rather than her hidden wings to cleave through all four drones in sequence before landing atop another droid, her momentum driving it to the ground, where a slash from her artifact finished it off.

Across the street from Setsuna, Yuuna finished off a Tanaka droid execution-style, then turned to find two more charging toward her. She rushed forward to meet their charge, and as the first swung at her, she caught and redirected the punch away from her with the barrel of her left-hand caster, then brought her other weapon up to shoot it, but the droid raised its other arm, knocked her weapon out of line, took the burst of energy across its left shoulder.

Yuuna grinned; this foe was worthy. She lashed out with a kick, her heavy boot driving the enemy back several steps. The second droid immediately rushed her, but the basketball star nimbly leapt over it, running at full speed toward the front wall of a house facing the street. The droid turned to fire at her, but her momentum and speed carried her several steps up the wall, which she leapt off of, the beam splashing into the mortar and brick where she had been.

She landed with her back turned toward the droid, and as it moved forward to try and take advantage of her position, she spun and shot it in the chest, checking its forward motion and stunning it. Mimicking Setsuna's earlier move, she hurled her casters into the sky, grabbed the droid's arm and leapt up onto its shoulders, pulling its arm up and into an overbalanced position. She executed a standing backflip, driving her full weight into its neck, crushing it to the ground.

The first droid she had tangled with now rushed forward to eliminate her while she was unarmed, but her casters fell into her outstretched hands, already aimed at the droid, and her double-tap shattered its torso and blasted the ruined machine back into a wall.

Time seemed to dilate to Yuuna's perception as she turned her attention away from the destroyed droids. She watched Setsuna impale a rushing droid on her nodachi and then kick the ruined machine off of her blade, watching with morbid fascination the way that it brokenly collapsed to the pavement, shards of broken metal armor skittering away from the point of impact. Further on, Asuna hammered her sword into the ground, creating a pressurized wave of air that shattered half a dozen droids and sent another dozen flying away.

In the clear space that was revealed, Yuuna caught sight of what could only be an infantry commander, made obvious by the full-face helmet, visibly-thicker armor, and the twin swords crossed over its shoulders. Taking off at a run, she blurred past Setsuna and Asuna, leaping over the remains of their defeated adversaries without breaking stride. As she neared, she brought up both her casters and opened fire on the droid as fast as her fingers could pull the triggers; not for the first time since the battle had begun, she wondered idly why she could fire her weapons without having to first use the incantation.

The droid commander turned in the direction of the fire impacting against it to see the black-armored ODST charging toward it and, misidentifying her as a Hero Unit that lethal force could be applied to, snatched one of its high-frequency swords out of its scabbard with a piercing hum as the weapon's force generator activated. The armored figure hurled the magic caster in her left hand at it, the weapon slamming into its face and knocking it off-balance for just an instant.

That instant was all Yuuna needed as she slid in, seized its right wrist in her left hand, emptied the last of the ammunition in her right-hand caster into the droid's center mass, then spun, adding momentum into the side-kick she crushed against the area she'd just filled with fire, launching the ruined hunk of machinery back into a number of its allies.

Half on instinct, she picked up the humming blade that the droid had dropped in her left hand, and only realized how surrounded she was by the flurry of red dots surrounding her on her motion tracker. The caster she'd thrown was broken, the one she still held was empty, and the weapon in her off-hand was unfamiliar to her, leaving her surrounded by enemies and in a very tight spot. As the droids surrounding her charged up their strip beams, she heard a low rumble of engines over the noise of battle and looked toward the lake, her eyes going to the sky.

Like avenging valkyries, two of the Zeroes soared out of the sky on a direct line down the main thoroughfare, backlit by the setting sun, their engines screaming as they dove toward Yuuna's general position. The four magic casters each fighter mounted within the wings and engine cowling roared to life, filling the entire width of the street from building to building with magic energy.

Despite knowing that the fire from the Zeroes would not harm her, Yuuna could not resist the instinctive drive to get out of the path of that much imminent pain. She took a running dive out of the street, rolling into an alleyway and turning back in time to see a solid wall of white energy engulf the street, eradicating the masses of droids filling it. The Zeroes thundered overhead at rooftop level, low enough for Yuuna to see the burn marks that droid strip beams had made on the airframes, the wake of the passing fighters reverberating deep in her chest.

Another cheer rose up from the defenders as the two Zeroes rose gracefully back into the sky, waggling their wings before disappearing around the side of the World Tree.

---

_Arcadia-Maison Apartment Building, Defense Point Alpha, Third Defense Line  
__1829 hours_

"Grenade out!" one of the Marines in Yuuna's 'Cleric' Team shouted, hurling a catalyst grenade into the mass of droids moving up the thoroughfare toward the clash on the street below them. The glowing blue sphere missed any droids and landed on the ground, but the explosion still destroyed a droid that passed directly over it and damaged five nearby units.

Hartley locked in another magazine to his sniper rifle and then stared down the optical scope, placing the crosshairs just slightly ahead of an advancing droid. With a loud _crack_ and the signature vapor trail, the stricken droid collapsed with half of its head blown off, its dead mass slowing the advance of its fellows.

The other members of Yuuna's group were armed with functional MA5C assault rifle mockups to give them a bit of a longer-range punch than they would have had with their SMGs and pistols. At random intervals, the armored personnel popped into firing position at the windows of the suite of rooms they had taken up to fire short bursts, then ducked back behind cover as the enemy returned fire. They may not have scored any direct kills in this manner, but their harassing fire made the job easier for their allies on the ground, who were beginning to encounter large numbers of droids pock-marked with 5.56x45mm bullet scars.

"Watch that one on the right!"

"Keep firin'!"

The heavy thud of the fully-automatic rifles firing was a steady drone as the squad alternated their rate of firing and reloading in order to provide a constant stream of firepower to harass the enemy below. Return fire from the enemy left the entire side of the building they were firing from scorched from strip beam blasts, bits of brick and mortar blown away from the attempts by the crab droids to dislodge the small squad.

Hartley carefully lined up his next shot, and the heavy anti-armor round punched through the head of one droid and the core of the next droid along the firing angle behind it, a two-for-one. Even as he lined up his next target, he called over the Fireteam Charlie battlenet, "This is Cleric Two reporting. Enemy forces at Alpha are starting to thin out. I think we've got 'em, Command."

"_Roger that, Cleric Two,"_ one of the control teams from Echo Base answered. _"We're receiving similar reports from the other defense lines. Hold on and mop up the rest of them."_

Over Cleric Team's private channel, unmonitored by Fireteam Charlie's command center, Yuuna grumbled, _"Hold on and mop 'em up, they say. _They're_ not the ones down here in the thick of it."_

Cleric Team's radio operator, Miko Yamazaki, cut in on the conversation as she stooped to reload, "The command center got attacked by cloaked special forces not too long ago. They beat them back, but lost a lot of artillery crews in the process."

"_Yeah, but that artillery ain't doin' us no good over here,"_ Yuuna answered. Before her transmission ended, there was the heavy crunch of metal from her end of the line. If Hartley knew his squad leader, that meant she'd just introduced one of their mechanical foes to the bottom end of her boot.

"Just means we've got to watch out for more of those special forces," Private Nishiyama said as he took a short breather from the constant firing, arranging his ammunition magazines on the windowsill where he could easily get at them. "Heard they were using Covie-style active camouflage."

"Man, those Engineering guys went all-out on this, didn't they?" Hatsu Uno asked as he leaned into view to fire a burst of 5.56 down into the droids.

All ten of Cleric Team were mundane adepts, with no knowledge of the world of magic, but all having some amount of magical heritage that they were unaware of. Yuuna and Hartley were beginning to suspect that there was more to this battle than a mere event. For her part, Yuuna didn't care one way or another as long as she got the top prize, but Hartley was suspicious. Something greater was at work here, his gut was telling him.

"What about the word that those spec ops guys are using these bullets that make you disappear?" Kazuhide Sato pondered.

Neither Yuuna nor Hartley ordered a halt to the speculations. If they were idly bantering about completely unrelated things, they probably would have. But the discussion was not only related, but potentially important, especially if those rumors of 'disappearance bullets' were true.

---

_Defense Point Echo, Third Defense Line  
__1835 hours_

The two counter offensive columns had reached the shore, the end point for their raid. Leaving a trail of destruction behind them, they turned inwards once more, one tank and half the universal carriers back up the way they came from, while the other two met up and joined by the rest of the other columns, moved upwards in the main street. At this time, Lorenzo and what was left of his defenders had taken shelter in whatever was left, dragging their unconscious and naked mates with them. The road to the fifth defense line was clear, and that was where the droid army ran to.

This met with disaster as Maria, still in the fight and being treated for her wounds, got the last two operable field guns online, and coupled with the mortar fire from the fourth defense line, hammered the advancing enemy force. Caught within a pincer of their own, the last of the larger walkers all but disappeared from direct and indirect fire, before the remnants were mopped up by the advancing counteroffensive columns, the hammer in this movement, driving the droids back towards the fourth defense line, the anvil.

By 1840 hours, local time, the great offensive was all but over. Losses included three platoons' worth of defenders, some physically injured, the rest just stripped and knocked out, a few buried alive and being dug out at this very moment; an Arlington Magic Society mage knocked out; a few overturned Universal Carriers who had been flipped over by the legs of a dying walker, the occupants needing medical attention; and one tank, which was trapped underneath a walker that collapsed on it.

Katerine's commandeered walker marched up into the ravaged third defense line, unrecognizable as belonging to the allied forces but for the IFF tags located within it and the crew hatch peeled up like the lid of a can, as Lorenzo emerged from his hiding place. At first, Katerine remained within the vehicle. She had discovered that the commander's seat allowed her to access all manner of information, including Kazumi Asakura's broadcasts and the continually-updating scoreboard. Upon discovering that, even after her cruel and tragic shenanigans, she was still only in the 30s on the scoreboard, she began to curse violently, prompting her driver and gunner to vacate the captured walker before she turned physically violent.

Many of the destroyed buildings now sported little pockets of resistance, weapons caches, and strong points to be used by individual fireteams. Meanwhile, the Centurions had been returned to their original fighting pits, now modified to reduce the time necessary to get out of the pits, whether to retreat or attack the enemy. The armor rush was not a move Lorenzo was willing to make again, knowing that Chao would have planned a countermove against it. In anticipation of another flank attack, though all doubted that Chao would repeat the same tactic twice, the perimeter had been reinforced with sensors modified to detect the active camouflage of the droid special forces. The last of the automated guns had been moved from their previous positions and were now covering the forest bridging the designated boundary between Delta and Echo.

The central street that was the primary route from the lakeshore to the center of Viertel Am See Plaza now resembled a true war zone, debris from collapsed buildings and destroyed vehicles on both sides pulled into positions to provide cover and concealment for the reinforced fighting positions. The anti-tank guns, including the ones mounted to the Universal Carriers, had been pulled back to the fourth defense line and garrisoned inside partially-destroyed buildings as engineers set about pre-sighting the approach to the plaza. The two 'Komodo' walkers that had been captured, the one Katerine had boarded and one that had been overrun by a squad of infantry after Kenta's Centurion had pinned it against a building, now patrolled the streets of the fourth defense line. The emblem of Fireteam Charlie, a phoenix within a shield, had been hastily stenciled to the core of the walkers, the upper parts of their legs painted red as well.

The imposing box that Maria was working on was moved, now it could be seen from the lake front. The rail gun within, once exposed, could rain death and destruction down the six hundred meters of now exposed open spaces. It was their Sister Ray cannon to the WEAPON Chao was expected to bring to bear against Echo, and as Maria was airlifted to the World Tree medical tent to have healing mages tend to her broken arm, she grinned despite her pain, happy with the knowledge that the weapon was ready to fire.

Lorenzo stood in the large alleyway that served as their impromptu loading dock, just finished packing a box containing two AMS modified guns. They were basically the newer model pistols, based off the Colt .45 but with a black polymer frame that was customized to resemble the M6C from _Halo 2_. Finishing a functions check, he slapped in a new magazine, placed the pistols into holsters, and closed the box. He handed it off to one of the 'Marines' that was being reassigned to the World Tree Plaza.

Several transport Warthogs were being loaded, while students climbed two below to the cleaned sewers. Unlike the other defense points, the sewers underneath Echo had been devoid of droids from the get-go. Sections had been welded or bolted shut, and the control room for overflow controls was heavily guarded by sentry guns. These in turn led to the safe houses that were still functioning, as well as numerous ambush points. The two tanks knocked out of action were rammed together, forming a barrier that restricted movement, while a group of universal carriers guarded the sides.

The forces here had been reduced, namely through computer generated models, platoons with highest kill ratios were kept for the defense of Echo. And these tended to be pretty close; only a 10 percent difference between the highest scoring platoon to the ones scoring the lowest.

There was a reasoning to the spreading out. One was to reinforce and act as the final defense line for the defense point they were going to. The second was to up morale, as these guys were equivalent to mid level commanders. The third was to free up Echo as to present a less target rich environment now that Lorenzo sprung his trap and showed that it was merely a feint.

Echo was now patrolled by roving universal carriers outfitted with machine gun turrets. Not just any turrets, but a quad-MG mount, sporting fire linked M249s with an operator sitting to the side as well as reloading crews. There was also two new arrivals, flatbed transport Warthogs that braced themselves beside the box. On their beds were Russian ZPU-4 machine guns mounted on the truck in firing position, encased in a semi-closed Barbette and manned by three people. There were only two functioning artillery pieces now, but three and a half crews, so extra crews were put into AA duty with the Warthog Technicals.

From there, he opened the private com channel to the headsets that all the Kuro crew were wearing. Encrypted, they were all synchronized to jump channels every few seconds. "Whenever you guys get here, I'm sending my reserves to the various defense points. Lead them, or leave them be; they know what their job is. Be on the lookout for camouflaged special forces, knocked out three of my big howitzers."

Haruka's voice crackled over the battlenet, _"Even with trained marksmen, friendly fire accidents can still occur. You have a solution to this?"_

"They're using penetration spells, standard-issue in the magic world, toned down though so friendly fire only results in burnt clothing and a nasty burn." He added, almost as an afterthought, "I'll upload the squad lists to your HUD now."

Since Haruka was dressed as a Marine, and Kaolla as Samus Aran, full text lists of Fireteam Charlie's personnel scrolled through their displays, detailing names, ranks, assignments, and locations, as well as those too injured to fight. Fortunately, those people numbered only ten, Maria included. A field mage-medic had reversed some of the damage from the special forces group's attack to her arm and set a full cast for her.

She also had access to the Kuro crew's private channel. _"Yes, be wary for the infiltrators. They're cloaked, but we have positive IDs on the cloaking signature. Visible distortion as well as infrared."_

"That's basically it. We're reorganizing as fast as possible here, so until the next wave, Echo and Lorenzo, out."

---

_International High School, Defense Point Foxtrot Central Defense Area  
__1839 hours_

The gymnasium had become a scene of carnage. The three crab droids that had attacked the mobile unit led by the two melee fighters had taken out their ranged allies, leaving the two to fight on their own, outnumbered by more powerful units. They had managed to take out one of the droids, but in that time, the other two had destroyed the barricades and broken into the gymnasium. A large portion of Foxtrot's supplies had been destroyed in the ensuing battle, setting the stage for a dangerous battle of attrition should any more enemy forces arrive.

But slowly yet surely, the enemy had begun to dwindle, and reinforcements had arrived to assist the two combatants in taking down the other crab droids, culminating with the brawler ripping a leg from the last remaining unit and impaling it with the limb, allowing the swordsman to brutally and messily crush its head and sensor unit with his massive sword.

The reinforcing defenders cheered, but the two experienced fighters knew that it wasn't over just yet. The brawler turned and yelled out, smacking his gloved hands together, "Don't celebrate yet! There's still droids lurking around our area! Get out there and make sure you bust every damn one of 'em!"

---

_Tatsumiya Shrine Outer Gate, Fourth of Five Defense Lines  
__1842 hours_

Twenty robe-clad defenders occupied the area in and around the outer gate leading into the shrine, firing their magic casters out into the forest to cover the retreat into the shrine of the last group of allied ground forces that were stymieing the enemy in the woods; Mei, the de facto commander of the Tatsumiya defense, had chosen to solidify her forces and strengthen the defense of the central area in the event that the rapidly-dwindling enemy forces attempted a last-ditch suicidal charge in an attempt to wipe out the defenders.

She'd been proven prophetic.

The current battle was a deafening roar of magic caster fire, hissing strip beams, running feet, and multiple and varied shouts from the defenders under her command as they struggled against the heavy onslaught. She was doing what she could to help protect the fellow students she was leading to the best of her ability, but she was rapidly burning through her magical reserves, and the regenerators that the 'Mage Knights' were using to refill their weapons on the spot did nothing to restore her magic energy.

As she burned down a droid with a volley of fire magic arrows, another stepped into a position flanking her and sighted in on her, following its programming to set mages as primary targets. Before it could fire, a dark blur slammed into Mei from the side, knocking her to the ground and causing the strip beam to go wide. Breath knocked out of her, she laid stunned as Kotaro rolled off her to his feet, made a palm-thrusting gesture with his left arm, and a pair of shadow dogs leapt from his shadow to rip the droid apart.

"Sorry about that," he said by way of apology, reaching down and pulling her up to her feet. "That guy had you dead to rights."

Mei was _almost_ as red as the fire magic she cast as she came upright, took a step back, and shook her head vigorously. "N-no, not at all," she answered his apology. "I…that…thanks…"

A strip beam striking the ground between their feet broke the mood, and they both snapped their attention around to the large number of droids still trying to get in through the gate. They broke for cover, each moving to opposite sides of the wall that was their group's only protection. The student directly to Mei's left leaned out to fire and was struck dead center by a strip beam, knocked on his backside by the blast, his weapon, robe, and clothing gone.

The student grunted as he hit the ground, called out, "I'm hit!" and then rolled out of the line of fire, accepting a backup 'plasma rifle'-type caster that another student tossed him and getting right back into the fight.

Even as this was going on, the intensity of the strip beams hitting the wall and passing through the gate opening more than doubled, making it a suicidal gesture to even attempt to return fire. "We're screwed!" one of the defenders shouted above the noise.

Kotaro's ears twitched, but not to hear that shout that was directly behind him. He cocked his head to the side, furrowing his brow as he tried to puzzle out exactly what made that kind of noise…

Meanwhile, to the rear of the encroaching droid formation, Fireteam Charlie's reinforcements tasked to Delta, consisting of one M41 light anti-aircraft gun Warthog and two troop transport Warthogs, one full of 'Marines' and the other filled with weapons and equipment, made their way in single-file along the sole road barely large enough to permit their passage. In the turret-mounted Warthog, leading the convoy, the passenger spotted the massed droids and spoke into his radio, "Save your ammo, run 'em down!"

The driver grinned and pressed his foot down on the accelerator, sending the Warthog hurtling forward. Behind them, the two transport 'Hogs likewise increased their pace. The droids, either unconcerned with the vehicles or unable to hear them over the volume of fire, made no attempts to remove themselves from the travel path of the all-terrain vehicles.

At full speed, the lead Warthog slammed into the back ranks of the droids, the vehicle's mass and speed allowing it to barrel directly through the massed enemy infantry. Direct impacts crushed the droids underneath the bumper and wheels of the Warthog while glancing blows launched flying robots in all directions. The transport Warthogs spread out to the left and right in trailing formation, taking advantage of their higher mass to handle the rough edges of the road in order to ensure more droids were smashed beneath their armored frames.

"Eww, we got droid bits in the grill!" the turret gunner of the first Warthog called gleefully.

The besieged defenders were largely unaware of this turn of events until a droid came flying into the gate and crashed to the ground, where it was summarily crushed beneath the right set of wheels of the lead Warthog as it roared through the gate, the driver throwing the vehicle into a perfect power slide that completely reversed the vehicle's facing, aiming the turret back out the main gate. As the transport Warthogs came into the gate and pulled to either side of the parked vehicle, the gunner on the main 'Hog opened fire, hammering the staggered droids with a hail of 7.62mm fire.

"Go, go, go!" one of the newly-arriving 'Marines' shouted as everyone but the gunner dismounted and moved up to the gate, the thunder of automatic weapons fire hammering in the chest cavities of the defenders, who had until now only heard the distant clatter of their saviors' weapons far off at the Viertel Am See area.

The apparent leader of the Fireteam Charlie reinforcements, a stark contrast from his fellows in his matte black armor and face-concealing helmet, calmly strode up to Mei. She expected him to salute at first, but he only nodded, and it took her a moment to figure out why: saluting her would pick her out as a target for droid snipers. The name 'RYMANN' was stenciled in white on his helmet.

"We're here to reinforce you, ma'am," he said. "We may be a little late, there's only about thirty clankers left…"

"Better late than never," Mei answered, returning the man's nod. "I'm thankful for your assistance."

Rymann nodded again, then turned to the personnel under his command. "Get those turrets up! Watch your fields of fire!"

---

_Mahora University Engineering Division Showcase Hall, Defense Point Bravo Central Defense Area  
__1843 hours_

For all intents and purposes, Defense Point Bravo was secure. There were still a number of small engagements going on throughout the designated area, but all major combat was over, allowing the defenders time to regroup and reorganize. Rumor was spreading through the Mahoran ranks about the potential threat of more infiltrators attacking out of the underground, so all involved were preparing for more enemies, even though it appeared that the enemy was the one thing they were beginning to run out of.

A mini-command center was being set up in a small suite of classrooms bordering the edge of the courtyard outside the showcase hall, linked back to the central command post at the St. Ursula chapel in order to provide more effective coordination and control for the forces further out.

Within this mini-command unit, the green-eyed rocket ranger schoolgirl had essentially taken command of the mundane defense force, organizing groups of student defenders and assigning fire lanes. She was also technically-savvy, as proven when she personally adjusted the settings of the campus computers, allowing them to interface with the raw data storage that Kazumi's broadcasting platform contained.

With that setup complete, as well as data received from the central command post, the Bravo defenders watched a satellite feed that showed the Mahoran mobile units eliminating the last of the enemy droids from the area of the Mahora University. The green-eyed commander crossed her arms and smirked as she watched the culmination of a good afternoon's work.

---

_Defense Point Alpha, Third Defense Line  
__1844 hours_

The massive mixed melee battle between the droid army and the Mage Knights was in its finishing stages. Due in no small part to the efforts of Setsuna and Asuna, as well as the air cover from the allied Zeroes, the Mahorans had pushed the droids back to and were reoccupying the third defense line. Currently, the last of the droids were being handled by the two 'Hero Units' halfway down to the beach defense line, leaving the mundane defenders to catch a breather.

Yuuna paused rather than follow her classmates toward more carnage, turning and looking back at the path that she and the others had blazed in taking back their territory. What she saw caused her body to go very cold: casualties lined the street from the fourth defense line all the way to their current location, and we're not talking wrecked droids here.

Just from a glance, she gave a rough estimate that there were around a hundred and fifty, maybe closing on two hundred, of her comrades laid out along the area of battle. A good quarter of those were divested of their clothes and equipment, which suggested they had merely been struck by the heavy repeating beams from the crab droids and were therefore unconscious but not seriously injured. Most of the rest, however, were still conscious, but in no way capable of moving from where they laid. From what she saw, there were a lot of broken bones and other injuries, some of them serious. Inside her helmet, she bit her lip. All-in-all, it had been a risky gamble to willingly and knowingly engage droids in a melee fight. Sure, the Mahorans had anti-machine 'Jammer' rings on their side, but combat-built robots were still combat-built robots. Down inside, she severely hoped that no one had been killed here.

"MEDIC!" she shouted, so loud that her voice turned hoarse. "We need some medics down here, now!"

From nearby, Ako looked up instinctively at the call for a medic, making her way to her friend's black-armored form, who was kneeling down beside an unconscious combatant, clumsily attempting to ascertain whether or not the man was even still alive. "Move aside, Yuuna-san, you're not trained for this," she said, shouldering her way past the girl.

Yuuna took no offense at this, knowing she was out of her league, and stepped aside to watch Ako swiftly and accurately perform triage on the student, pronouncing him alive, probably concussed, with no life-threatening injuries. She looked up toward the central plaza to see over a dozen white-clad individuals racing toward the scene of battle, recognizing Konoka in the lead, with one or two of them branching off at each large cluster of casualties.

She nodded once; these were the trained medical personnel. Someone had obviously passed along her call for a medic; she didn't think her voice would've carried that far, especially with the noise of battle still ongoing all around them. She watched the medics scurry from person to person, and in the case of one injury that raised serious alarm amongst them, Konoka was called over, and she produced a pair of fans that she began to wave about in the air. This left Yuuna staring dumbfounded, wondering what in the nine hells that waving a pair of fans would do to heal a life-threatening injury.

So stupefied was Yuuna by this turn of events that she failed to hear the Warthogs signifying the arrival of Fireteam Charlie reinforcements, until the 'Marine' that had been given the box by Lorenzo tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned, the student held it out to her. "From Colonel Ruiz, Sergeant."

She took the box and unceremoniously pulled off the lid and tossed it aside to find a pair of sleek black M6C pistols, looking to be spec-op'd out, resting in a new gunbelt inside. "Huh, nice." She drew one of the pistols, checked to make sure the safety was on, and testingly spun it around her gloved hand. The balance was good, but the weight was more than she was used to, more than would seem likely from the massively-extended magazine. Furrowing her brow, she set the box down, then hit the magazine release button and confirmed her suspicion: the weapon was loaded with live ammunition.

The realization of what it meant struck her hard. Though she was trusted enough to lead her own squad in Fireteam Charlie as part of the elite Helljumper division, she hadn't been allowed to use any of the live weapons in Fireteam Charlie's inventory due to the fact that she was still in middle school. The fact that she had been given these pistols meant that she had elevated herself into a position of trust that meant that the sponsors and advisors of Fireteam Charlie were willing to take the flak for giving a minor a working firearm.

With the magazine ejected and no round in the chamber, Yuuna pointed the pistol in her hand to the ground and gave the trigger an experimental tug, finding herself pleased with the extremely light draw weight which would allow her to fire much more rapidly than normal. These were obviously high-performance competition pistols visually modified to resemble the Halo Magnums, likely personally bankrolled by Lorenzo. She'd see to it that he got the maximum return on his investment.

---

_Command and Control Center, Defense Point Charlie  
__1845 hours_

Aside from the floating holographic screens displaying specific combat areas around the defense points, a holographic, 3-D topographical map of the entire center of the city, essentially the entire battlefield, was set up in the middle of the room. Real-time holographic images of the battle were displayed over the table, and was touch-sensitive to allow users to zoom to any part of the battle and tap any unit to gain immediate vital statistics.

Professor Akashi stood over this command table, quietly observing the flow of the battle which had swung inarguably in their favor. He could hear reports and radio chatter from the stations around the chapel sanctuary as he watched the little holographic enemy units begin to dwindle toward nothing.

"Enemy forces are being depleted," a student reported from behind him. "Our forces now outnumber theirs twenty-to-one, with those numbers shifting in our favor the more we reequip and rearm our forces."

"Initial computations from the number of kills scored by allied forces as compared to the number of enemy units still operational indicates that the enemy deployed approximately twenty-five hundred units," Natsume reported. Akashi willed himself not to turn and stare at the windows and reports flying across her console at inhuman speeds. "The intelligence we received concerning the enemy's force strength appears to be spot-on."

From the other side of the room, he could hear the reports from the crew controlling the flight of Zeroes providing air cover for the Mahoran defenders. _"Heavy fire zone on the other side of that tower."_ The associated holographic displays showed a pair of Zeroes flying circuits around the clock tower, provoking fire from the droids taking cover within._ "How many droids you think, Six?" "Say about twenty droids. Some on the surface, some in the tower."_

Natsume glanced up and to her right at a report, then transmitted the associated video file to the holographic screens floating in the air. "Defense Point Echo has routed all enemy forces and are deploying their reserve units to assist in securing the other defense areas."

Professor Akashi could see that as much for himself; looking down at the command map, he could see tiny holographic Warthogs of both the transport and machine gun varieties departing from the general area of Echo, laden down with nearly four hundred reserve 'Marines,' three companies' worth, that Fireteam Charlie's commander deemed more than was necessary to keep their line secured. He realized idly that he wouldn't know the names of the vehicles or be at all familiar with Fireteam Charlie's forces if not for his daughter, both her obsession with the _Halo_ series and her involvement with Fireteam Charlie.

"_Red Six, Red Two, Foxtrot is requesting air strikes to stop a massed charge on their command base. Get over there and help them mop up."_

"_Copy that, Red Leader."_

_So this is the result of the headmaster's plan,_ Professor Akashi thought to himself. It was all coming together like a grand symphonic orchestra of carnage. _What brilliant foresight on his part. But, if what I'd heard was true, concerning the true origin of this plan, then it would seem that he truly is his father's son…_

His thoughts were interrupted as a keening wail erupted from every console simultaneously, red emergency lights flooding the chapel's sanctuary and dozens of new holographic monitors flashing into place in midair, displaying warnings and alerts in half a dozen languages. Station operators' voices crowded each other out as they shouted back and forth in frantic activity.

"What is it?" Akashi calmly asked.

"Intruder alert in the Pieta mother frame," Shizuna's voice calmly cut through the background chatter. "Permutational phenomena appearing in the Variant."

Yuuna's father turned to face the 'guidance counselor.' "In the mainframe? Where's it coming from?"

"Scanning," a student across the chapel answered, her fingers moving frantically across her station. After a few moments, she swore and reported, "Unable to track transfection course!"

"Subsystems are down!"

"We're losing the barrier's connection to the main power generator!"

"We didn't detect them until they breached the mainframe security and attacked the barrier subsystems," Natsume reported, her already-fast actions at her station nearly doubling in speed.

"Academy barrier output less than thirty percent power remaining!"

Since no one else seemed to have any trouble doing so, Akashi swore. "How is this possible!? We have multiple security measures in place! Our system should be a hacker's nightmare!"

"Activate the security measures!" someone shouted.

"No good, they're already breached!"

"Release Type 03 security electro-sprites section three to eight!"

"Damn it! We're locked out of our defense commands!"

"The enemy has cracked the first eight- no, make that _twelve_ digits of the security encryption code," Shizuna reported, her calm voice a steady rock in the storm of activity.

"This speed isn't humanly possible," Natsume bemoaned beneath her breath.

Turning away from the girl, Akashi stared over Shizuna's shoulder at her monitor. "Cut all lines to the mainframe," he ordered. "Stabilize the academy barrier through a secondary line."

This was only the work of a few moments before Shizuna responded, "Main line purged. All signals blocked."

Almost immediately, the alarm klaxons sounded again as double the previous number of alert indicators blazed in the air. "No!" Natsume shouted. "They've bypassed our lockout and accessed the system through the secondary line! Academy barrier collapse is imminent!"

---

_Defense Point Alpha, Lake Mahora, First and Second Defense Lines  
__1847 hours_

Misa and Sakurako shoved against a deactivated droid, the sound of its impact drowned out by the clamor of battlefield noise generated by the lakeshore defenders fighting back against the last of the seaborne invaders. Magic blasts from the robe-clad Mahorans whistled through the air, impacting against the droids with greater accuracy and stopping power, the students very quickly putting their gained experience to greatest use.

It took the pair a moment to hear Madoka calling out to them from where she'd stationed herself behind the railing of the road running along the beach, the same position she'd held and been harrying the enemy forces from for most of the fight. "Guys!" she called out, risking exposing herself to wave their attention to her, before she pointed behind them. "Look! Out on the lake!"

The two cheerleaders turned in time to see five disturbances out in the middle of the lake, in the form of five massive columns of water shooting into the sky. The sound and motion drew the attention of the other beach defenders, and those who weren't immediately engaged with the enemy likewise turned to stare.

Sakurako narrowed her eyes at the disturbance, squinting and shielding her eyes with her hand to try to see what was causing them. "What the heck is…" she murmured.

Slowly, the water began to sheet down off of whatever it was out there in the lake, revealing five monstrous creatures nearly two hundred feet tall. Their forms varied from one beast to the next, but all of them were ferocious, and all seemed intent on overrunning the five defense points Bravo through Foxtrot. Strangely enough, there was not a sixth beast set to go after the World Tree Plaza itself.

"I-It's a Gundam!" Sakurako exclaimed.

Almost as if it had heard her, the beast nearest the lakeshore, which had until moments ago been moving toward the University, turned its attention toward the gathering of Mahorans at the Alpha lakeshore. Of the five, it seemed the least menacing with its mouse-like ears and goofy expression, but there was nothing jovial about the way that it opened its maw, leaking energy out of its mouth into a point of light before its head. The point of light drew in energy from the surrounding environment, so much to the point that it darkened the very air around it as it aimed this obvious beam attack toward the lakeshore defenders.

Dozens of the defenders scattered to take cover from the impending attack, but Madoka merely turned and seated herself on the roadway, her back leaned up against a support pillar for the railing, clutching her beam rifle to her chest. "There goes my killing spree…"

The release of the attack resembled a nuclear detonation in terms of kilowatt brilliance and energy backwash. The entire lakefront and adjoining roadway vanished beneath a cloud of dust and energy, the rumbling vibrations of the impact noticeable as far away as Hinata. As the light faded, every defender within the area of effect, even those who had thought themselves safe within buildings or behind cover, were laid out across the area, reduced to their undergarments, and rendered unconscious by the combined force and energy of the blast wave.

Up near the Arcadia-Maison apartment complex that marked the general location of the third defense line, Yuuna and all the other defenders gaped in horror at the sheer power exhibited by what could only be an extremely-powerful level boss. She'd seen the video documentaries released by Bungie about the new Scarabs that were going to be in _Halo 3_, and that was what these things reminded her of.

In her ear, crackling over the her helmet's radio, she could hear the panicked voices of her squad: _"Wha-what the hell is this!?" "Do we even have the firepower to take these out?" "We need a damn Spartan to stop that thing!"_

Much to the basketball-star-turned-Helljumper's relief, the mouse-eared creature turned away from the World Tree Plaza defense area and resumed its original course, heading toward the Engineering Division, the central point of Defense Point Bravo. She stared after the beast for a moment, still in shock at the fearsome power of the beast, now knowing how the first UNSC forces that had ever encountered the Covenant Scarab had to have felt.

After a moment, she shook herself out of her shock, reminding herself that she was still in the fight, still technically 'in command' of the entire Defense Point Alpha area; she hadn't asked nor been assigned to take command of the World Tree defense, but everyone seemed to be following her lead, so that's pretty much how things were.

She amped up her vocal enhancers and called out to everyone near her, "Okay, everyone, let's move it out! Get the wounded up and back to the medical tent! _Everyone_ else, fall back to the fourth line!"

Her words snapped the other defenders out of their catharsis. She paid little attention to the chorus of affirmatives and shouts as the three hundred or so remaining combat-ready defenders began to move back up toward the plaza. She spared a glance to the Arcadia-Maison apartment building to see the IFF tags of her squad moving, likewise heeding her orders to fall back to a central area where more fire could be concentrated upon any approaching enemies.

To her left, she spotted Ako lifting Fumika up onto her back; the younger of the Narutaki twins having sprained her ankle when she tripped over a wrecked droid during the battle. Yuuna felt a twinge of guilt for the girl's injury; she, Ako, and Akira had informally agreed to keep watch over the twins during the event to make sure they weren't trampled by the larger competitors and adversaries, but at least this way she'd be out of harm's way for the remainder of the event.

The enhanced audio sensors in Yuuna's helmet picked up a faint mechanical whirring sound, that her own studies informed her belonged to a US Army Model 134 high rate-of-fire machine gun, colloquially known as the 'minigun.' Aware that the 'M41' turrets of the Warthogs were really just visually-altered M134s, she thought nothing of it, until she watched a line of dozens of black spheres erupt along the rear of the withdrawing Mahoran forces, each sphere engulfing and trapping at least one robed defender within.

Yuuna spun around, in the process seeing that Ako and Fumika had been trapped within one of the spheres. "Y-Yuuna!" Ako shouted as she pounded in vain on the interior surface of the sphere. "Save-"

That was all she got out before the sphere collapsed in on itself and vanished, leaving behind no trace of Yuuna's classmates. Moving in stunned disbelief, the pistol in Yuuna's left hand clattered to the ground as she reached out to pass her hand through the space her friends had occupied, the screams of the defenders and the roar of the minigun sounding dull and miles away to her ears. Her gloved hand passed through empty air, encountering nothing. Somehow, someway, Fumika and Ako were completely gone.

So focused was she on what she had just seen, that she had forgotten the danger she was still in, remaining unaware of it until something struck her hard in the back, sending her crashing forward onto the plaza stairs into darkness.

---

_Mahora Subway System, Beneath Defense Point Foxtrot  
__1848 hours_

Upon escaping the complex labyrinth of maintenance corridors and sewer passages, the small, unofficial fireteam under Takaki Sato finally made their way into the subway.

Takaki sighed in relief; the droids had not made it this far. However, they couldn't afford to use up any more time ducking underground while their allies battled above. Following close behind was the cautious Taiyo, and three others. Each paused to catch their breath and check ammo.

"One minute break. That's all we can afford," said Takaki, turning to what was left of his squad: Taiyo Miyazaki, Kazuki Kamishakuji, Yukimura Madarame, and Mikuru Naoe. All inseparable friends, all about to oblige. That is, until the massive explosion above shook the station and everything around them.

"What the hell!? An earthquake?!" cried Mikuru as she attempted to stabilize herself against the nearest wall.

"No! That's no earthquake, Miku-chan, that was an explosion! I didn't know our guys had that kind of firepower! Good night, clankers!" laughed Yukimura from his flat-on-his-back position.

Kazuki stayed silent as he always did, while Taiyo quickly tried to calm himself down.

Takaki regained his balance as the shaking ceased, retrieved his equipment and ordered the squad to start moving. "Kazuki, turn the radio on, see if you can find out what that was just now!"

The silent young man nodded and reached to activate the back-mounted command radio he had taken from the center station a while earlier. The result was a loud static accompanied by an onslaught of frantic cries and screams of flight.

"_Fall back! Fall back to…fortify posi…!"_ called one from defense point Foxtrot.

"_They've got… this! We're done for! Get … here!!!"_ screamed another from defense point Alpha.

"Oooooooh kay, maybe we _don't_ have that kind of firepower," muttered Yukimura.

Not a second after, Takaki noticed a new rumbling, this one coming from up ahead. "Radio off!" he said in frustration. "Find cover, now!"

None wasted time doing either. Within seconds everyone was quiet, concealed, and behind some sort of cover. The rumbling grew closer, slowly becoming apparent that they were footsteps, lots and lots of foot steps. The pace of said footfalls steadily increased with every second.

Takaki cursed silently and muttered beneath his breath, "Reinforcements huh? Just what we needed…" He spat and swore again. "Damn it Hiro-kun...would you hurry up and save our asses?"

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, Yuuna's pistols are the M6C/SOCOM from the upcoming Halo 3: Recon. I know that Bungie hadn't even INVENTED the game yet in June of 07, but they're too awesome, and a signature weapon for the Kuroverse Yuuna. And yes, I know that the game is called ODST, but I swear up and down that it was a stupid move on Bungie's part to change the name, cos calling it Recon made it sound mysterious and awesome.

Anyway, in preparing this chapter, I took note of thirteen external references to other games or movies/videos. Some are obvious, some are not, and quotations are not counted. Fireteam Charlie also doesn't count. Any reader who can correctly identify all thirteen will win some arbitrary prize that I'll come up with later.

And speaking of Fireteam Charlie, look for Yuuna and her Cleric Team to appear as guest stars in an out-of-universe work, paladin313's Karin: The Inquisition, over in the Karin/Chibi Vampire section.


	23. Burden of the Future

A/N: I have successfully completed BMT, and sat down on my town pass to finish and post this chapter and compile the OST, but the OST won't be available for a few more days. But this is a 49-page chapter so you might not be done with it by then. lol Enjoy, and prepare yourselves for the final, epic showdowns.

* * *

"_A lot of people remember what we did at that plaza that night, the 'Last Stand at the Tatsumiya Shrine.' But we weren't the only ones doing heroic things. At the end, just staying in the fight was heroic enough in my books."_

- Master Sergeant Rymann, _'Mages vs. Mars: The Complete Visual Encyclopedia'_

**Chapter XXII  
The Burden of the Future is Everyone's Responsibility**

_June 24, 2007  
__Rooftops, Mahora University Engineering Campus, Mahora Academy, Japan  
__1848 hours, local time_

_The future. Many believe that the future is not written, that there is 'no fate but what we make for ourselves.' I hope this is true. I hope that the future is always in motion, that the actions of the day can alter events of the future. Everything I do, I do in the name of a future that cannot be allowed to come to pass, for its assurance will result in the extinction of mankind. And in order to prevent that, __**this**__ is a small price to pay._

Chao Lingshen watched dispassionately as one of her Type-II Tank.a 'Heavy' infantry models stepped through the broken front windows of a café, its servomotors hissing hydraulically as its blood-red visual sensors scanned the street before it, and then methodically brought into position its M134 minigun. The barrels spun for a moment before a torrent of 7.62mm bullets roared out, cutting the legs out from beneath a Mahoran running for cover. A black sphere of displacement energy swirled around the stricken man for a moment before decompressing itself and vanishing, taking the foe with it.

More 'Mage Knights' revealed themselves to fire at her forces, but the minigun-armed unit merely shifted its aim marginally to target and eliminate them, not relenting the stream of bullets. One, two, three, five more Mahorans fell to the heavy unit's fire as return fire, both magic blasts and rifle fire from Fireteam Charlie's reinforcing elements, bounced harmlessly off the more-hardened frame of the marauding unit. Quite simply, the enemy could not focus enough fire to significantly harm it before it cut down anyone who revealed themselves. Dozens of roiling black spheres filled the lines of the Mahoran forces, depleting their numbers and putting the fear of an uncertain fate into those left behind.

A glowing, hissing blue catalyst grenade sailed out from the Mahoran lines, adhering to the torso plate of the heavy unit and exploding. The stuck droid was cast to the ground, its central frame shattered, sparks issuing from the ruined minigun, but another of the half-dozen 'Heavy' infantry units focused its minigun fire on the location that the grenade originated from.

Ahead, two of the Type-I 'Locust' light armored droids relentlessly, mechanically scaled the Mahoran barricade, blasts from their central plasma turret hammering the entrenched and retreating enemy forces. As with the Tanaka 'Heavy,' the enemy's return fire was almost completely ineffective. As these units were part of her main attack, the "I'm-Not-Playing-Games-Anymore" force, she had increased the stopping power of their plasma turrets significantly while still keeping them below the lethal threshold. A smoke plume from a nearby alley signified a rocket-propelled grenade that struck the flank of one of the Locusts, staggering but not significantly damaging the unit as it spun to face its aggressors and hammered their cover with plasma fire.

Chao gestured with her right hand, and three of her funnels drifted toward the location of the rocket crew. Hovering over the alley, the three funnels swirled to face their primary emitters toward the enemy. One ignited a spotlight to assist the others' targeting, and the other two unleashed a barrage of nonlethal red energy blasts potent enough to knock the offending party unconscious.

"_**The main force of the Martian army has begun its attack!"**_ Kazumi's voice boomed across the battleground._** "All defenders, stand to your courage and work together to defeat the enemy!"**_

The rattle of automatic weapons fire close behind drew her attention to the stairwell exit onto the roof she occupied, as a boot kicked open the door that had its lock disintegrated by the weapons fire. Another rocket crew rushed out onto the roof, garbed in the cosplay Marine uniforms of Fireteam Charlie, one carrying the MFAR-900 dual-barreled rotary rocket launcher that the island nation of MolMol had built based on the design of the M41 'Spanker' that _she_ had given them in exchange for medical treatment three years ago. A second man carried reloading tubes, and the third bore an MFAR-60 assault rifle, modeled off the UNSC MA5C model.

She snarled at the group's appearance, their uniforms, and weapons. To _them_, the Human-Covenant War was the subject of a mere video game, a form of entertainment, and not the life-or-death threat that _she_ knew it to be. These men, all the members of 'Fireteam Charlie,' infuriated her for their callous disregard for the lives, and deaths, of the brave men and women who _deserved_ those uniforms. When she had seen them as the sole defense force of Point Echo, she had almost, _almost_, rescinded the zero-fatality order to her forces.

The rifleman spotted her and, assuming her to be on her side, called out, "Hey, careful! If those things down there spot you up here, they'll burn you down." Turning away, he murmured to himself, "The hell are these ones looking like damn Terminators with those machine guns… Hey, Harukata, give her your BR!"

Many years ago, in her perspective, at least, she had been given an M6D Magnum by a friend, UNSC officer, and descendant of one of her 3-A classmates, shortly before he had been killed by a special operations Sangheili. She had kept and cherished the weapon, and modified it over the years. One of the modifications she had made was giving it the option to chamber in something other than 12.7mm.

Having received the requested rifle from the reloader, the rifleman turned to offer it to her, and saw her swapping magazines in a Magnum pistol. Unbeknownst to him, she was swapping the lethal 12.7mm armor-piercing ammunition for her specialized 7.62mm compulsory time leap bullets. That done, she unsafed the weapon and snapped it up, aiming it at the rifleman.

"Hey, whoa! Calm down! Watch where you're pointing that thing!"

"Relax-_ne_," Chao told him, her voice as cold as liquid nitrogen, a cruel smile on her face. "These won't kill you-_yo_, just make you sleep for a while."

"What are you-"

It didn't sink in what was going on until the two squads of special forces 'Chachamaru'-type models, six droids, lowered their active camouflage, appearing from a hazy shimmer surrounding the rocket team. The three pseudo-Marines looked around at the droids surrounding them at weapon point, and at the battle suit-clad Chao, still aiming her Magnum at them.

"Y-you're with them!?" the rifleman stammered, shocked. "Traitor!" His hand shot over to grab the police-style radio strapped to his shoulder. "Echo Command, Echo Command, this is Corporal Sakai at the University! We've found the enemy's-"

Chao was sure that he was going to say 'commander,' had his words not been drowned out by the roar of four FAMAS F1 rifles and two MP5k submachine guns. The rocket team literally vanished beneath the volume of displacement spheres, and once the last one had vanished, Chao holstered her Magnum, stepped forward, and picked up the rocket launcher that had been discarded, staring down at it.

While it was true that she had knowingly given away the weapon schematics to that nation so that humanity would have the future's technology as a basis to build off of, the fact that humans would treat the future she came from as some sort of game in this manner…

The metal of the rocket launcher groaned and warped as Chao squeezed the weapon in rage, the strength augmenters of her battle armor beginning to crush the weapon. One of the Type-II Chachamaru-replica special forces commanders watched this event without blinking. "Master…"

"Return to your duties," Chao whispered, casting the ruined weapon over the rooftop, into the mass of her advancing droids. Without a word, the six droids engaged their active camouflage and disappeared.

She turned to watch as her droids on the ground broke open a medical station. One of the walking wounded, a bloodied bandage wrapped around his head, struck at the head of one of her droids out of desperation. But the man wasn't wearing one of the enemy's Jammer Rings, and the blow did nothing more than knock the unit's head to the right without even shaking the rest of it. Just like the scene out of the _Terminator_ movies she had based her droids' appearance on, the droid slowly turned its head back to face the offending human, its left hand snapping out to grab the man and hurling him out into the street, leaving it to the others as it raised its FAMAS and hosed those too wounded to defend themselves.

Yes, Chao told herself, this was an acceptable price to pay for humanity's future.

_Makeshift Martian Command Post, Beneath Defense Point Alpha  
__1846, local time_

Beautiful. Of all the words in the many languages of organic meatbags he had been programmed with, ITSUki 13 could find none that even came close to justly describing the great massacre before him. Nor did he believe that anyone, organic or otherwise would be capable of fathoming Chao-_sama_'s truly selfless decision to go through with this operation. ITSU watched with nothing short of joy as the Martian's main force smashed against the unprepared defenders of Mahora. All across the city, the flawless tactical execution of the Martian army's sudden main wave had most, if not all of the frontline defenders in full retreat. Alpha had been almost too easy to take from the overconfident meatbags. Now the foolish defenders of Bravo and Foxtrot would get a taste of the combined steel resolve of the Martians.

Quietly focusing his thoughts, ITSUki spoke into his helmet command mic, "Press the advance and capture those defense points! I repeat, press the advance and clear the way for the demons! Even with their hero units, the Mage Knights will not last long. If they fight against the future, they will fall for the future!" He realized his lessers could not understand his prideful approach, but would still carry out their orders to the letter.

The main force commander wasted no time in returning to his orders. Delta was still giving his troops trouble with their ambushes and hit-and-run tactics. Foxtrot was as good as finished with their diminishing supplies, and would be the likeliest to fall next. Echo was still proving problematic, however as Chao had told him, _"Remember, they may be tenacious but they're hardly indestructible."_ Too true. Charlie was a juicy target, and if they could take the bridge, its fate would be sealed.

"All remaining units of the first wave are hereby ordered to upgrade their standard weapons from strip beams to standard issue battle rifles. Check your ammo, and confirm your time placement rounds are active."

He waited to hear a confirmation, and was surprised only fifteen squads of the first wave responded. No matter, the little pawns served their purpose well.

A chirping alarm pulled ITSUki's attention to the pesky Delta's location on the holomap before him. Displayed were chibi representations of the Locust and Komodo divisions flashing in red, sporting the comedic sweat drop above their turrets. Chuckling softly, ITSU raised a lazy finger and pressed the distressing avatar. Activating a small video screen, Komodo commander unit 101 appeared on the other end. _"Commandant, our armor cannot proceed through the Delta tree line. We're being peppered lightly by enemy fire but have taken no casualties. Your orders sir?"_

"Do not waste time on Delta. Instead, re-route your forces to Bravo; You'll find yourself much more valuable there, captain," answered ITSUki with half a smirk and half a sneer.

"_But Commandant, what of our forces at Delta? We're advancing steadily but with heavy losses."_ Its concern was more tactical than emotional.

ITSUki eyed the captain, and considered his options before answering, "Delta's forces are my responsibility, not yours captain. Delta will fall within the hour, along with the rest of their cowardly allies. I suggest you continue as ordered," spat ITSUki, throwing his hand in a swatting motion at the video screen, dissipating is as though it had been mist. Almost immediately, the chibi representations calmed themselves and began running across the board to Bravo.

"All comms open," verbalized ITSUki into his tactical command helmet. As every channel slowly opened to ITSUki, he could feel the presence of the thousands he knew as comrades, grunts and officers alike. All connected, all listening, all waiting for his word to command them.

"My brothers, my sisters, fellow soldiers of the Lingshen Martian Army; Victory is imminent! As each wave of us crashes against our foes, their strength wanes and their will erodes! Our enemies have faltered and in their desperation, they dig their own graves! They know their attempts at resistance is futile, they have only to choose where they will fall!" rang ITSUki's prideful voice, extending his arms to their maximum reach before him, as though to spread his influence beyond the walls of the room he occupied, to beyond the city above, as though the world itself could hear. His magna guards exchanged looks with one another, unfamiliar with this sort of behavior in an combat android.

"My kin, we will show them what the soldiers of the Martian army can do! Even now, they masquerade as the fallen and hide amongst their homes in an attempt to surprise and outwit us! My siblings, it's time to play as dirty as they so wish. It's time to drag them out by the hair and remind those meatbags of what we are! So I give you this, our solution, your orders, and our master's victory! All units, initiate Order 17. Search and destroy! Hunt them down in whatever corner they hide! Shoot all enemies once, then shoot them again, shoot the standing and shoot the fallen, ensure they are silenced!" roared the metal giant, his voice resounding through the universe of channels, in one collective echo, the red army confirmed their orders.

"_SIR, YES, SIR! My Commandant!"_

ITSUki openly cackled in his grotesque, mechanical, way as he shut off his comms. His gaze then shot to his magna guards, who snapped to attention with a click of their heels and a quick salute. Ready to willingly give their lives for their older brother and commander.

"My dear sisters, my elites, we are going up. To the world of mortals, where our victory and immortality await us! The Mobile Commandant Squad 'Apollo' is now commencing full operations!"

As he exited the makeshift command center, he could not help but smile, loving the part he played. "History will remember us a murderers...but our actions will lead to the salvation of humanity."

_Somewhere Above the Combat Zone, Mahora, Japan  
__1847 hours, local time_

At three thousand feet, the battle taking place around the center of the academy-city of Mahora appeared to be the events of a miniatures role-playing game, and unfortunately, in the mind of a tiny marionette puppet observing the action, the lack of blood and true carnage was just like one of those games.

Chachazero flapped the miniature bat wings attached to her back and rose off from the broom-like staff upon which she'd been sitting, and though the expression on her doll face didn't change, it was obvious she was pleased. "Hey, I can fly! My little sister got the academy barrier down! Mistress, if you've got something planned, now is the perfect time!"

Still seated atop the staff, Evangeline scoffed as she raised a small glass into the air, and a nearby floating bottle of sake drifted over to top it off. "Don't be so rude," she answered. "The show's about to get interesting. Those so-called 'Heroes' that claim I'm one of them talk a lot of talk, but let's see if they can back up that talk. We're going to kick back and just watch today, Chachazero." Evangeline grinned, and tipped back the cup of sake, watching the academy in which the 'heroes' had taken up residence. "Come and have a drink with me."

_Bridge Causeway, Defense Point Charlie, Second Defense Line  
__1848 hours_

A thunderous explosion rocked the chokehold bridge as a black sphere erupted in a cluster of defenders laying suppressive fire to enemies on the opposite bank. Unlike the infantry droids' fire, this blast came from one of the 'Komodo'-type walkers' anti-vehicular cannons, and fell into the midst of student defenders like an artillery round. The three in the immediate area of affect were trapped within the black sphere as it spiraled down into nothingness while the other three were thrown screaming in all directions by the blast force, one sailing over the wall and into the waterway running below the bridge.

In the center of the span, a Fireteam Charlie explosives specialist busied himself setting a remote charge on one of the support pillars, calmly and methodically going about his work and ignoring the roar of a heavy machine gun turret that had been brought out and set up on top of a car to hold back the advancing wave of droids. More explosive bolts from the walkers sailed past their heads, impacting against the streets and buildings on the far side of the bridge to little effect.

"Hurry up and finish that thing!" the machine gunner shouted above the roar of his weapon as he swung it around to pepper an overzealous droid with .50-caliber BMG. He then swept his weapon toward black motion out of the corner of his eye without bothering to cease firing, forcing the enemy to cover against such high-powered ammunition.

"You want to do this? Then be my guest. But this ain't a job you want to rush…" the demolitions specialist murmured as he twisted the arming mechanism and then pressed a button to activate the remote detonation system, waiting for the indicator lights to flash green.

"_Signal is good!"_ a voice called over their radio frequency. _"Arm the other detonators and pull back to me!"_

There were other demolitions crews on the job, rigging a number of failsafe devices in case the two over the center of the span weren't enough to halt the enemy's advance. Calmly and without concern, the demo man crossed behind the machine gunner to check that the package he'd previously set was still functioning. Its two status lights were glowing green and flashing orange, signifying a steady signal from the remote and readiness to detonate on command. As this was going on, radio chatter from the other demolition teams was beginning to grow more frantic.

"_Come on, hurry it up! I can't hold them back much longer!"_

"_I can't make this go any faster!"_

His job finished, the center span demo man pulled his battle rifle from the magnetic cradle on his armor's back and looked to the far end of the bridge, where the chatter was coming from. Another heavy machine gun crew was firing nonstop into the crowd of droids, and two rocket-armed marines along with them peeked up over the barricade and fired their rockets into the leg joints of one of the new walkers coming up toward them. The blasts struck sparks from the joints, but otherwise didn't even slow the enemy vehicle.

A droid that had lost its weapon in an explosion rushed in underneath the smoke plume of the missiles in an attempt to get the drop on the rocket crew, but the leftmost soldier spotted it incoming, leaned out of the way of its initial lunge, and then powered it to the ground, where he began hammering it with the rocket launcher. As this was going on, another droid stepped up while the second rocket man was reloading and fired a single shot into each of them, eliminating them both with that distinctive black sphere.

"_I've got it! Detonator's set, let's get out of here!"_

"_Alamo! Alamo!"_ cried the forward machine gunner as he ripped his weapon off its base and tossed it over the side of the bridge to deny its use to the enemy.

Back at the center span, the demolitions specialist thumped his gunner on the helmet. "Come on, tough guy, we gotta blow this bridge."

The gunner grunted, then gripped the top-mounted carry handle of the machine gun, reached beneath the weapon, and snapped off the bolts holding it to its tripod. He then adjusted his grip to hold it by the carry handle in his left hand, and by the firing brace in his right, and ripped the turret free from its base, half-stepping backwards across the bridge as he fired the machine gun in bursts to discourage enemy pursuit.

Utilizing that fire, the demolitions specialist darted from cover to cover, never straying far from the machine gunner and his heavy field of fire. Despite the mass volume of fire coming from the machine gunner as well as a dozen defenders, both normal students and Fireteam Charlie personnel, on the far side of the bridge, the enemy forces had already made it onto the bridge, marching over their own fallen without as much as a glance, the walker in their midst firing globe after globe of energy up the hill, seemingly softening up the defenses further on.

"Get out of here!" the machine gunner yelled above the clatter of combat as he stepped around a barricade. "I can't hold them ba-"

The energy blast from the walker struck without warning, as they did not create a whistling sound the way that artillery rounds did. Whether by superb accuracy or incredible circumstance, the blast landed directly on the machine gunner, engulfing him in an instant, while the force of the blast pitched the demolitions specialist onto his stomach, his ears ringing from shell shock.

As he rolled onto his back and looked up into the darkening sky, he saw a pair of Zeroes flash overhead, the lead fighter firing at some distant target. He heard neither the rumble of the engines or the scream of the magic casters past the dull throbbing of his ears and the sensation that someone had stuffed them full of cotton. He caught sight of his helmet lying upside down nearby, having fallen off at some point in the blast, and reached over to pick it up, turning it over to let debris fall out of it before putting it back in place on his head.

Sound slowly began to reassert itself as he sat up and numbly looked around for his battle rifle. Of the machine gunner who had been watching his back, there was nothing except a point on the bridge at which the shell casings from the heavy machine gun just _stopped_, a point which the advancing droid infantry was fast approaching.

His main weapon was gone, either tossed off the side of the bridge when he had been hurled by the blast or otherwise having ended up where he couldn't see it. Leaning up on his left arm, he reached down to the holster on his right thigh and produced the reproduction M1911A1 that all the special-service members of Fireteam Charlie had been given. Shakily raising the weapon in his hand, he aimed it at the nearest of the droids and pulled the trigger, and if he even noticed, he didn't care that the .45-caliber slug only bounced off the machine's frame. Lining the weapon up once more, he fired another shot, and another, and another.

He felt more than heard booted feet running up to him, and barely glanced back when a fellow marine grabbed him by the shoulder strap of his armor and hauled him backwards, still sitting down, away from the bridge. Faintly, through the haze of shell shock-induced deafness, he could hear a voice yelling over the radio, _"Marines, fall back now!"_

The texture of the ground beneath him changed, brick cobblestone now where it had been concrete and asphalt a moment ago, which meant he was no longer on the bridge. He was dragged behind a barricade by his mysterious benefactor, where an individual wearing a white robe with a hastily-scrawled red cross on it inspected him. He couldn't hear the voices, but he figured that he was being pronounced with shell shock.

Nodding to the medic, the marine looked away from the dazed demolitions expert and consulted his PDA. He didn't get a fancy HUD like those lucky bastards in the Helljumper division, so if he wanted to check IFF tags and locations, he had to use a handheld device. The Fireteam Charlie squads that had moved to Defense Point Charlie had uplinked with the central command and control there to get their maps and IFF beacons updated, and that map was currently showing the bridge to be clear of any and all allied IFFs, Fireteam Charlie or otherwise. "We're clear!" he yelled into his radio as he dove behind a metal barricade. "The bridge is clear! Light it up!"

"_Roger that, detonating charges,"_ the marines all heard over the radio. _"Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!"_

Evidently, either all the charges were wired to the same detonation signal, or it had been decided higher up the chain of command to blow the entire bridge. Starting from the first support braces nearest the enemy's side of the bridge, twin fireballs blossomed in the midst of the advancing droids, scattering wrecked and fragmented machines along with concrete debris. More paired explosions went off in sequence, walking toward the allied lines, decimating the enemy forces on the bridge while simultaneously cutting off the major access point. As the thunder of the last of the explosions died out, the marines and robed defenders cheered the display of wanton destruction, pumping fists and weapons into the air.

"_Hell yeah! That's the way!"_

_Viertel Am See Plaza, Defense Point Echo, Third Defense Line  
__1849 hours_

Lorenzo stood in the command center. He had his forces already spread out in the other defense points, and already the enemy attack came. Lorenzo had told them to hold, to not expose themselves. Every one of his defenders were hiding, camouflaged within the ruins with their IFF deactivated until they opened fire. The Demon too was closing, and he had to act now. He went outside, and walked past the waiting artillery crews. He pulled out a flare gun and raised it.

"You know...I can just make a big joke about this and yell out _Henshin_," he said, noticing Maria had followed behind him.

She smiled, and pulled out her own pistol. "I don't think you're as unlucky as Ryotaro, besides, you're more badass than some comical character like Den-O," she said.

Lorenzo smiled, and looked below him. They were already passing the two tanks used as a roadblock, and were slowly nearing the only fortified line they had. "I guess so," he remarked, before pulling the trigger.

A trail of white smoke issued forth from the pistol, the flare going high before exploding into a red ball. Simultaneously, in the rear of the enemy formation moving up the main street, numerous IEDs, placed there from the very start, detonated in a deafening cacophony of fire and thunder. Considering how tightly packed the enemy were, even with the uphill climb up to the ruined plaza that greatly resembled a scene from the Siege of Stalingrad, this amounted to some confusion. This was compounded when the third and fourth defense lines opened fire, the heroic defenders who had volunteered to filter to the front catching many in surprise booby traps, claymores hidden in the rubble, and even explosives hidden amongst piles that threw rock everywhere at speeds that can kill.

Of course the droids were fighting back, and dirty, already command started getting reports of people disappearing, and already Katerine, who had been kept in command of the captured walker, opened up. The railgun was offline, but that didn't matter, as the twin forty-millimeter anti-vehicle weapon still functioned to great and devastating effect, their attack coupled with the tanks that had been resupplied with canister shot, which were firing them as fast as they could be loaded.

The defenders who weren't in vehicles kept firing into the crowd, some not even bothering to raise their heads, merely resting the barrels of their weapons on top of their cover and firing. The target rich environment ensured that even completely blind fire would eventually score a hit.

Among the ones who went forward were the four AMS mages besides Lorenzo and Maria. They were once again performing their stylized weapon dance inside ruined buildings, helping the mundane defenders with a well placed burst here and there, as well as making tactical decisions and reorganizing forces.

In the very rear of the enemy forces was the massive demon which, unlike the others, actually looked as though it had sat at the bottom of the lake for decades, a tremendous beast that seemed not so much to move as it did _ooze_ through the lake, its surface shimmering as though it had a continuous, moving sheen of water sliding across its massive form.

The remaining artillery pieces had set the beast as their primary target, shelling the creature with furious abandon, though the points of impact on the creature's hide seemed to ripple for a few moments, underscoring the appearance of a water skin, before settling with no apparent harm from the artillery. As the demon reached the shore, its water-skin sluiced off it and into the lake, and as artillery continued to rain down on it, minor holes and burn marks began to appear in its side, though with not even a quarter the damage that the artillery crews expected of the Type-96 field guns they were using.

"Okay...that thing is getting close. Let's reveal our trump card shall we?" Lorenzo said, and donned heavy duty ear-covers. As he did so, an air raid siren sounded, and the sound pierced through the fighting, and even carried over to other defense points. Almost immediately, the fighting began to die down, everyone wanting to get out of the way. Only the Type-96 field guns continued to hammer the demon with as much fire as they could put on it.

It seemed like an easy task for the enemy commander: mop up the survivors of the last waves of attacks and capture the defense point. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, a spirited defense that would make it rough and dirty. That is, when the third defense line people, those that the droid had personally been fighting room to room, suddenly disappeared. The spider holes they went into were booby trapped and sealed off. And the walkers and tanks backed off, as well as the defenders. The ground commander in charge of the assault did not question the actions of its enemies, and pressed forward toward the upper command area, where the enemy's remaining artillery and that mysterious box waited.

"Open their gift," Lorenzo said, and Maria pressed on a button.

The front exploded into four pieces via explosive bolts, one piece crushing an overzealous droid beneath, before those who spilled over were dealt with by the two captured walkers. Before anything else can take a shot at it, the railgun fired one shot, or it seemed to have fired something, as a bright flash emitted from the front of the weapon, and in the middle of the enemy, a huge explosion that claimed anything within a 30 meter radius and blew shrapnel in all directions.

Upon seeing this, the demon seemed to let out a growl, and then hunkered down in its position, generating a bubble-like shield around itself that destroyed the artillery rounds on contact with it. The creature roared, and as it did so expanded its shield outward in a roiling energy attack wave that struck the buildings along the first defense line and brought them crashing down upon themselves.

At first, Lorenzo assumed that everyone taking shelter within those buildings had been killed by the attack, but aerial images from UAVs flying over the battlefield showed a number of those trademark black spheres that seemed to be creating a sort of teleportation effect on those it affected.

_Mahora Gakuen All-Girls' Academy, Classroom 3-A  
__The Same Time_

The school that her adopted sister attended was only a hundred yards from the lines that marked the edge of the battle area around Defense Point Charlie. Because of its proximity to the combat area, a single squad of Fireteam Charlie's Marine personnel was tasked with patrolling the area to make sure that the enemy weren't attempting to use it as a base of operations. They needn't have bothered, however, for it was the Kuro crew that had claimed the academy as their base.

Motoko sat in her sister's seat, listening to the distant rattle of weapons fire, interspersed with the occasional rumble of an explosion. Chao had pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. The 2500 droids that the Mahoran defenders had spent the last hour and so fighting against had been a skirmish and distracting force, minimally-armed to lull her enemies into a false sense of security. Her _real_ attack force, numbering fifteen thousand strong and armed with weapons to rival Lorenzo's Fireteam Charlie, had maneuvered through the vast sewers of the city-academy to position themselves in perfect tactical position. Then, when everyone had thought her army defeated, the six Defense Points had found themselves inundated with an additional twenty-five hundred droids, _each_. The momentum had swung hard in her favor, and had yet to be recaptured. Because of this terrible turn of events, Motoko knew, she and the others would be forced to abandon their original plan to march in all badass like the parlay scene from the last of the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ trilogy and simply make their way to their assigned defense points with all available haste.

These thoughts, however, were the farthest thing from her mind as she sat at Setsuna's desk, her head cupped in her hands. A crystalline drop of moisture raced down her cheek, hanging momentarily by the line of her jaw before falling free to the surface of the desk, joining several of its comrades in a shallow pool. Mutely, she traced a finger beneath her eye, preventing the escape of another such drop. _Why now?_ she queried silently, biting her lip in a valiant effort to keep back the flood of emotion threatening to overwhelm her. _Why did I have to learn this _now_? Now I find myself so conflicted, I know not what I should do. Aneue, which duty should I hold in higher regard? Duty to my comrades and the mission? Or…_

Her other hand dropped into her lap, and then began to slowly rise up the front of her body, coming to rest on her stomach, which her arm then wrapped around protectively. _Or do I give more weight to the duty to my husband, and our child…?_

She hadn't thought it incredibly unusual when she had missed her period the previous month, as it would have come around the time that they had been challenged by Mahora Academy, and stress was known to short-circuit periods. She'd become wary when she'd missed her period this month, which should have come weeks before Mahorafest, not as though this festival had caused her any stress at all; to the contrary, it was the most relaxed she had been in a long while. The fatigue she had blamed on the battle with the Mahorans, and the upheaval they had been dealing with since the end of May-_has it really only been two months that Keitaro has been gone?_-had been pegged as the source of lingering stress. She had likewise blamed the occasional nausea on a spring flu.

But while her husband had been out at the cosplay contest at Library Island on the first day, she'd been with Naru and Haruka and, having discussed her symptoms with them, Haruka had immediately brought her to a convenience store and purchased a home pregnancy test. They'd returned to the Hinata to allow her to use it in privacy, and then Naru had gone out afterwards to buy two more of differing brands. Taking two additional tests from different brands was just a formality, and all it did was confirm the fact.

Naru and Haruka had sworn to say nothing, to let Motoko break the news on her own time. She and Seno had never even discussed the prospect of children; she didn't know if he even wanted to be a father. She had no doubt that he would be a wonderful father, being as he possessed the talent of patient caring with the ability to be strict and disciplinarian when necessary. But the talent to perform a task did not mean that a task was welcome, a fact keen on her mind after having recently finished reading Seno's copy of _Republic Commando: Triple Zero_. She felt a keen similarity between herself and the female Jedi who had become pregnant by a clone soldier. _Unlike_ that story, there was no Sergeant Skirata keeping her from telling Seno that he was going to be a father. She would not, _could not_, keep this a secret from him.

And speak of the devil, she could hear his voice now, echoing faintly down the empty hallway, probably speaking to the patrol of 'Marines' that had passed by the room several minutes ago. "Hey, you guys seen my wife? Long dark hair in a ponytail, wearing the outfit with the blue miniskirt?"

She blushed at that description, especially when a few of the student-soldiers' comments about the 'hottie' started to drift her way. Fortunately, the leader kept professional, answering, "Yes, sir, saw her back there in 3-A."

"Thanks, guys. Keep at 'em, we're gonna knock 'em dead!"

Hearing footsteps echoing down the hallway at a rapid pace, she quickly sat up and rubbed her hands over her face, erasing her tear tracts and trying to bring her appearance back under control. She had just finished and was looking toward the door as he came striding through, the dim light of the setting sun glinting off the green and black samurai armor he wore. With _Shinaijou_ sheathed in a custom-made scabbard, the flowing green cape bearing a coiled dragon, and the traditional _kabuto_ with the gold crescent moon crest, he looked every bit the image of Masamune Date, stepped straight from the screen of _Samurai Warriors 2_.

And he could play the part too, with that cocksure grin on his face as he came through the door, mischief lighting up his left eye that wasn't covered by a painstakingly-detailed eye patch. She could feel the tense energy radiating off him through the soul bond they shared, and knew that he was anxious to get into the action, that this was like a once-in-a-lifetime combination of all his Clone Wars and _Samurai Warriors_ dreams wrapped up and packaged for him. It was the ultimate fanboy experience, and he was almost giddy with anticipation.

She knew that if she told him now that it would distract him. He wouldn't be able to focus on his enemies, and even if he could put it to the back of his mind, it'd still be back there, nibbling at his subconscious, and he wouldn't enjoy the event as well as he otherwise would, and that it could potentially cause him to make a mistake. She couldn't tell him now.

So she forced a smile and stood up as he strode into the room, and she had to admit that the look suited him well, almost as if he had been the One-Eyed Dragon in a previous life. That wasn't possible, of course; in one of his previous lives he had been a samurai of his own lineage serving the Date during the time that Masamune was alive, and at the same time she had been a samurai serving the Toyotomi, and the two had met on opposite sides of Sekigahara. According to legend and the histories of both the Nakakami and Aoyama families, they had killed one another in battle.

He noticed the drop in her attitude immediately, and wiped the cocky expression from his face. "Motoko? Something wrong?" he asked, crossing the room swiftly and cupping her cheek with his right hand.

She smiled faintly and bit her lip, leaning her head into his palm. "No, it's okay," she whispered. "Seeing you in that armor, it reminded me of what your parents told us of our past life in the Azuchi-Momoyama period."

At first, he said nothing, the sharp gaze of his one visible eye piercing through her as he pursed his lips in thought. Reminders of that past life were as painful to him as they were to her, especially as they were almost forced to relive that horrible scenario again not even a year ago.

Banishing those dark thoughts, he raised his other hand to her shoulder and gently pulled her to him, the motion causing the plates of his armor to rattle as he leaned down and kissed her, sliding the hand on her cheek down to the small of her back.

The kiss may not have been intended to sooth her frayed nerves, but that was what it did, and her heart was racing for a different reason as she pulled back slightly, looked at him through lidded eyes, and whispered, "I thought you were Masamune, not Nagamasa."

He grinned that cocky, smug grin of his that went so well with the Masamune armor, and kissed her again, then answered, "Well, I'll have to kill ya if you tell anyone about it. Imbecile."

Stepping back, she pulled herself out of his arms and then walked a slow circle around him, taking in the costume that he had spent months researching and designing, ensuring that he had gotten every detail perfect. He was even better-suited to cosplay as Masamune than most people, since he had a similar facial structure to the character from the game. He really almost did look like the genuine article.

"You play your part so well," she all but purred, slipping her hand beneath the neck guard of the helmet and tracing her fingers along the bare skin beneath. "One might truly think you to be _Dokuganryu_." She glanced down beneath the cape, spying two of the Mahoran magic casters that he had obviously taken to complete the image. She grinned at a sudden vivid memory of a five year old boy trying his hardest to win her a stuffed bear at a festival booth. "Except your shooting ability is atrocious."

"Shit, you know just how to kill a mood, don't you?"

She laughed and came around to his front, slipping her arms around his neck. "The truth hurts, my love." Reaching up, she hooked her fingers over the top of the crescent moon and tugged forward, pulling the helmet down to obscure his vision. As he grunted and reached up to reseat the helmet, she said, "But a mighty warrior, nonetheless. Truly worthy of the title of Dragon… of Hinata."

"Oh, hey, I like that," he said as he finally got his helmet back on straight, grinning down at Motoko. "'Dragon of Hinata,' huh? Yeah, I think I'm gonna go with that."

A new, female voice that neither of them recognized broke in, "I do so hate to break up such romantic scenarios, but we really must be going. If we do not assist our erstwhile comrades soon, the enemy army will break them."

The couple looked toward the bank of windows overlooking the embattled area to see a figure beginning to materialize. It took on the form of a woman with long, flowing brown hair tied in a ponytail. Her attire consisted of a 'bodice' that was really little more than black wrappings which disappeared inside a black _hakama_, over which a tattered red half-skirt was belted. Her arms were covered by unattached black sleeves and white hand- and wrist-guards. Held in her hand was a blade identical to _Shinaijou_, down to the gold-and-black hilt wrappings and the dragon wing design of the _tsuba_.

Seno's hand immediately dropped to his side as he recognized the blade, and found that his _daisho_ was still sheathed at his side. At first he didn't understand who this woman was and why she was holding an exact replica of his blade, but then he remembered something that Kazue had told him. "Okay, I know damn well that samurai didn't dress like _that_ back in like the twelfth century."

The woman turned toward him and gave him a dry smirk. "No, but this is a festival. Am I not allowed to wear a costume myself?"

Seno's only response to this was a facepalm. Motoko, on the other hand, looked from her husband's blade, to the identical one that the woman held, and it took a moment for her to draw the connection, at which point she gasped and immediately moved to go to one knee. "Hisato-_sam_-"

She was stopped by the touch of the woman's hand beneath her chin, keeping her from kneeling, and bringing her gaze up. The woman's _shundo_ had been silent and perfectly-executed. "No such formalities are necessary," she said. "I failed in my duties to my family, and brought shame upon the Aoyama name. It is _I_ who should be deferring to _you_, Motoko-_sama_."

The young heiress of Shinmeiryu looked positively stricken as she shook her head at the woman, her distant ancestor. "N-no, that is not…"

Hisato smiled and touched her palm to the top of Motoko's head. "I look upon you with great pride. You have brought much honor to our family, and will continue to do so."

Seno didn't appear impressed. "Now who's wasting time?"

"Shush, you," Hisato tossed back, waving one hand dismissively. "I've never gotten to speak to my descendant before, and I don't have much time. Perhaps an hour or two at most. Not like how you and I can speak whenever we so choose."

Shrugging, Seno turned and strode out of the room, murmuring something about imbeciles as he left. Motoko smiled faintly. _In character even when he isn't,_ she thought.

Hisato laid a hand on Motoko's shoulder, a serious expression on her face. "You can't keep it a secret from him," she told the younger woman. "It would be morally-wrong by every societal definition."

She didn't insult her ancestor by asking to what it was she referred. "I know," she whispered, touching her stomach again. "I will tell him tonight, after the battle. I didn't want him to be thinking about it during the fight, and lose his focus."

The spirit-woman smiled. "Good. You are blessed with a grace of mind as well as beauty. My charge is very lucky to have your heart."

Motoko bit her lip again, some distant clinical part of her mind reminding her that if she kept that up, she was going to make herself bleed. "I…I fear going into battle, Hisato-_sama_. I fear some unforeseen injury could bring harm to the child, or that the continuous channeling of my _ki_ could have some adverse affect."

"Fear not, my child," Hisato said, squeezing Motoko's shoulder. "As long as I am manifest, I am free to do as I will. Your husband will not suffer the loss of my spirit within the blade, for it keeps all its attributes so long as I still exist. I shall stand by your side during the coming battle, and I shall protect you, and the future you carry within you."

"Thank you," the young heiress whispered, feeling tears once more threaten to cloud her vision. She quickly wiped them away, resolving herself, then said, "Come, there is a battle to win."

_Red Flight, Airspace Over the Combat Area  
__The Same Time_

"_Red Flight, those unsealed demons are going to be trouble. See what you can do about taking them down."_

"Charlie Station Five-Seven, we're on our way," Stephanie answered, pulling out of a strafing run against a group of the new six-legged walkers marching out of the lake. Her weapons were barely scratching the armor of those units, something that went against everything she had ever learned about close air support. Of course, if her Zero were armed with the authentic 20mm and 7.7mm cannons she'd probably be causing a lot more damage to the enemy walkers. Then again, were she equipped with the real cannons, she'd have long since expended all her ammunition.

As she climbed back up to three thousand feet, she sideslipped and rolled her fighter to avoid ground fire from the new enemy forces. These were real bullets being shot at her now, rather than some silly laser strip beams, and she was all too aware that she was essentially flying a wood frame with an engine and paper mâché for armor.

Her other pilots heard the order as well, and from the other five defense points, the seven other Zeroes peeled off from their attack runs and moved to rejoin Stephanie, who was circling over the residential sector of the city. Once they were all in formation, she led the squadron into a swooping course toward the horned demon moving steadfastly toward the command center at the chapel.

It didn't have a discernible face, instead simply a horizontal red slit across its head that must have served as its eyes, and two small circular ports where a normal creature's mouth would be that were emitting red blasts of energy. They watched as the creature plodded methodically through the water, moving slowly and sweeping its head back and forth to target whatever defenders that it could see. While its blasts appeared to be little more than scaled-up versions of the droids' strip beams, its power was obviously much higher, as the shots blasted holes in buildings and gouged scars into the landscape where they struck.

"Okay, boys, keep tight now," Stephanie ordered as they closed with the demon. From their altitude and angle of approach, it still had not spotted them. "Attack pattern Delta, go now!"

The eight fighters split into two groups of four and roared past either side of the demon, catching its attention and alerting it to the new threat. As they came around to engage it directly, the beast ignored them and continued its advance. Concentrated fire from its primary attack mode disintegrated a one-story department store, the blast force sending the dozen defenders inside flying out into the streets. Stephanie watched out of the side of her canopy long enough to see that all of them were still moving, and couldn't believe how a blast of that power didn't kill through concussion.

Shaking it off, she looked away as ground droid forces eliminated the stunned students with those curious black spheres, putting her attention back on the demon she was approaching. Centering the beast in her sights, she tightened her finger down on the trigger of her cannons and watched as waves of energy roared out of the wings and engine cowling and slammed into the demon's flanks, not even appearing to leave burn marks.

She pulled back on her stick so as not to crash into it, then pushed the stick forward again as soon as she was clear. "Earhart, you still with me?"

"_Right with you, Red Leader."_

Nodding, clicking her radio transmitter to confirm that she'd received, she banked into a left turn, coming around for another pass. As she circled, she looked back to see the other pairs of fighters strafing the sides and rear of the demon as the combat maneuver she'd called dictated. None of them seemed to be having any affect. Frowning, she tightened up her turn as she called into the radio, "Cover me, Earhart, I'm going to get brave."

"_I've got your back."_

The demon didn't show any sign that it was even aware of the squad of Zeroes attacking it, or if it was, that it considered them any more troublesome than a group of swarming gnats. It continued to plod toward the lakeshore, only about a hundred meters from the beach, as it rained fire down on the defenders trying to pick off the advancing enemy infantry. The Mahorans had adopted the strategy of fighting from alleyways and connected buildings, only revealing themselves for a moment at a time and never firing twice from the same location.

A wing pair of Zeroes roared past over the destroyed building, and as they did so, the demon turned its attention toward them and let loose a pair of blasts toward them. The outer Zero swiftly rolled out of the line of fire, and as the second fighter swept onto its left wing to follow, one of the energy blasts grazed the fighter, setting its underside ablaze.

"_I'm hit, I'm hit!"_ Walker reported frantically as he banked away, uncontrolled, toward the lake.

Johnson, Walker's wingman, did a superb job of flying alongside him. _"Get a hold of her,"_ the pilot urged.

The heat of the blast had damaged the air frame, and the right wing was wobbling dangerously. _"Negative, negative, I've lost control of the engine. I'm going down!"_

"_Bail out!"_ Johnson ordered. _"Command, we've got a bird down. Need a SAR over to the lake, ASAP. I'll mark the position with green smoke once he's down."_

The canopy of the stricken Zero rolled back and the pilot stepped out onto the wing, then dove off the rear of the fighter. His weight snapped the heat-damaged framework and sent the aircraft into a flat spin that ended with a nose-dive into the lake. Walker hit the lake feet-first, and as he swam back up to the surface, Johnson circled overhead and tossed a green smoke grenade into the water.

One of the five Black Hawks was already approaching the crash site as Johnson turned and banked away. _"Red Flight, this is Medevac Five, on location. We'll get your downed flyboy."_

Despite the loss of Walker, Stephanie still had a job to do. She centered her fighter over the main approach to the chapel and, with Earhart off her left wing, roared directly down the thoroughfare toward the demon, centering its red eyeslit in her crosshairs. She squeezed her guns' trigger once more, watching as its entire head disappeared beneath the volume of fire she rained upon it. But as she ceased fire to pull up, she saw that, once more, she hadn't even left burn marks.

Swearing, she contacted the command center and reported, "There's nothing we can do. This thing's hide is too strong for these little blasters."

There was a moment before she got an answer: _"Understood, Red Leader. Abandon the assault on the demons and return to harrying the infantry."_ The radio operator didn't add, _Where you can actually be useful._ They didn't need to.

_Alleyway near Arcadia-Maison Apartment Building, Defense Point Alpha  
__1851 hours_

Consciousness came to Yuuna like waves lapping on the shore, fading in and out of her perceptions. She could feel the rough scrape of the ground beneath her as she was dragged along, on the occasions where she could feel anything at all. Squeezing her eyes shut, she let her head roll to the side as she tried to force the aches and pains of the last hour and a half of constant battle out of her mind. An incessant ringing sound assaulted her ears, and as she slowly came more aware, she realized that it was a beeping sound, a warning likely caused by the ominous crack down the side of her helmet visor.

Shifting onto her back, she craned her head back to see who or what was dragging her, spotting a human form with shoulder-length brown hair and a Japanese longbow slung across her back. The woman was obviously having a hard time dragging the full weight of Yuuna and her armor, given that she was hauling by both of Yuuna's shoulder straps and still making a fight of it.

"Finally come to, have you, Yuuna-_san_?" the person dragging her whispered. She looked back at Yuuna and gave her a grin, revealing a face the gunslinger girl recognized, that of the recent friend Hotaru Kobayashi she had met during the field trip to Kyoto.

"Ugh, what the hell happened?" Yuuna groaned.

Hotaru stopped dragging Yuuna and used her grip on the armored girl's collar to haul her upright. "That 'bot with the big Gatling gun would've got you if I hadn't tackled you down. You hit your head on the steps though, so I dragged you out of there. Sorry about that."

Not immediately answering, Yuuna popped her helmet and touched her gloved fingers to a sore spot just above her temple, but her hand didn't come away bloody, so she replaced the helmet and muttered, "One-thirty-four."

"Hmm?" Hotaru asked.

"Not a Gatling gun," Yuuna explained very matter-of-factly. "General Electric Model One-Thirty-Four machine gun, commonly known as a Dillon minigun."

The girl looked askance at the gunslinger. "I'm an archer, hun. Guns are…" She passed her free hand over her head.

Yuuna chuckled.

Hotaru smiled and threw an arm around the armored girl's shoulders. "Well, tell you what. You've been inspiring a lot of people to keep fighting out there, so you keep it up, and I'll watch your back."

"Right, let's do it!" Yuuna called out, a little too loudly, as she rose to her feet to get back into the fight.

"Wait, wait, get down!" Hotaru hissed, grabbing the other girl's collar and hauling her down, against the opposite wall that supported the incline of the staircase leading up to the plaza. Flattening herself against the wall, she indicated the need for silence by pressing a finger to her lips.

Confused, Yuuna flattened herself as well and furrowed her brow inside her helmet, only just then realizing that the defense area had gone mostly silent save for the ominous sound of marching feet. She was drawn out of this realization by a scraping noise and looked up to see a blond-fringed head peek over the lip of the wall, scanning the alley for the source of the sound.

Movement out of her peripheral vision drew her to look toward Hotaru, who gestured up at the droid, drew her bow, and then shook her head. The thing was armored, and from this position, there was no way that Hotaru would be able to get enough of a draw to take the thing out in one shot without being spotted. Nodding, Yuuna reached down to her gunbelt and drew one of her new pistols, glancing down at it, then switching it out of safe mode with a very slight click.

The droid, however, heard the noise, and leaned forward in order to peer straight down at them. Yuuna reacted immediately, snapping her pistol up and putting an armor-piercing round straight through its forehead. It took her not hearing the expected explosive report of the weapon to realize that it was suppressed.

Destroyed and overbalanced, the droid pitched forward and started to come down on top of them. Covering the top of the wall with her pistol, Yuuna shoved Hotaru forward and out of the way with her free hand, instincts taking over as she sought any kind of cover from the enemy. She spotted an open window at the basement level of a two-story house and pointed Hotaru toward it. The archer nodded and broke for the window as more droid units leaned over the retaining wall behind them and opened fire.

Black spheres burst into existence all around them as Yuuna turned and fired her pistol one-handed, seeking to suppress more than hit targets. Distantly, she could see in her field of vision the FAMAS F1 rifle that the droid she'd shot had dropped, and regretted not having the presence of mind to pick it up. She continued to fire as she walked backwards, and as she counted past the normal twelve-round capacity of the Magnum and the weapon kept firing, she briefly wondered how it could hold so much ammunition.

Her back hit the wall of the building, but she knew that if she turned to hoist herself up into it, she'd be shot as soon as her suppression fire came to a halt. It seemed that Hotaru had already thought of this, as she felt the girl's hands snap onto her torso armor's collar and haul her up bodily through the window frame. Hotaru hauled with all her might, and the two collapsed in a pile of limbs and armor out of sight of the window.

Yuuna's head rang from the crack of her helmeted head against the floor of the building, and as her eyes cleared, she found herself staring up at Hotaru, who was draped across her in a manner similar to that found in most _shoujo_ anime or manga. This brought forth the brief thought that such incidents _did_ happen in real life, swiftly followed by the fact that _Hotaru was laying on top of her_. Hotaru had flirted with her a bit during the field trip to Kyoto, and had helped her get past the rejection she'd gotten from Makie. Since then, she'd spent more than a few sleepless nights wondering if there was something there.

The archer seemed equally-entranced by their position. She brought up her hands and felt around the edges of Yuuna's helmet until she found the trigger to slide up the blue-black visor, revealing the young squad leader's face. She then leaned herself forward, bringing her face closer to Yuuna's, closing her eyes as she neared. Yuuna's eyes widened, and an electric tingle ran through her body. _Is s-she about to k-k-k-kiss me!?_

The world will never know, as heavy bootsteps came down the stairs leading up to the next floor. A dark-armored figure came around the corner and spotted Yuuna and Hotaru on the ground. The name 'ADACHI' was stenciled on the figure's helmet. "Damn, glad to see you made it out of that mess, Sarge," the armored figure spoke with a woman's voice.

Hotaru, startled out of her semi-daze by the Helljumper's voice, looked up lazily at the other armored woman and muttered, "Couldn't have waited two more seconds…" before standing up and moving aside to recover her dropped longbow.

As that was going on, Adachi knelt down by Yuuna's side and pulled off her helmet, inspecting her for injuries. It took Hotaru a moment to spot the familiar red cross over a white background on the armored shoulder pad indicating a medic.

"We thought that minigun bastard got you," Adachi continued, shining a small light in Yuuna's eyes, then holding up a finger before her face. "Follow my finger, Sarge." She began to move her finger in random patterns, watching Yuuna's eyes track the digit as she continued, "Lost a good thirty just right there, and it's been steady losses ever since."

"What about all the wounded?" Yuuna asked.

Adachi shook her head, then hauled her squad leader into a sitting position and handed her back her helmet. "Minor concussion," she diagnosed of Yuuna's condition. "You'll be fine. Bastards shot most of 'em where they laid. It's gonna be tough from here in, Sarge. These guys got real guns and whenever they shoot someone, they disappear in these weird black spheres."

Scowling, the almost-kiss already pushed to the corner of her mind, Yuuna pulled her helmet on and snapped the visor shut. "Numbers?" she asked, her voice emerging slightly-canned from the external speaker of the helmet.

"Estimates are upwards of two-k at every defense point," Adachi answered, picking up her mockup BR-55HB SR. "We're pretty much all fighting the _entire_ first wave all over, _and_ they got these new guns. Morale is shot to shit here. Everybody's taking cover and hiding from 'em, and they pretty much got a clear line straight to the plaza."

Yuuna uttered a very un-ladylike curse and ejected the magazine of her pistol, seeing that it still appeared fully-loaded. Not questioning this, she slammed the magazine back in and looked at Adachi. "Okay, we've got to get some kind of semblance of command and control back here, otherwise they're just going to march right over us." She activated the HUD map system and brought up the local map of the Alpha defense area, using a specific pattern of eye motion to mark a building near the center of the plaza with good overwatch over the entire area. "This is our rally point. Get the squad there. Move out."

"Ma'am," Adachi nodded, then turned and dashed out the back door of the house toward the central plaza.

Standing in the background, watching Yuuna take command and give her orders, Hotaru felt a small rush of…_something_, something that gave her hope that they would make it out of this okay. She felt a maddening sense of deja vu, that she had felt this before, that sensation that they needed to pull together and give that last bit of effort.

She didn't know what came over her right then, but as Yuuna finished checking her pistol, Hotaru strode purposefully toward her, seized her weapon hand by the wrist, and brought her other hand up to trip the switch that would flip up Yuuna's visor. As before, Yuuna's entire frame froze up at the unexpected move, and Hotaru took advantage of the other girl's confusion to grip the back of her helmet, holding her in place as she leaned in and kissed the gunslinger girl.

A brilliant violet light erupted from beneath them, accompanied by a gust of wind that blew directly up toward the ceiling.

The light faded, Hotaru stepped back, and Yuuna looked down to see two cards bearing the likeness of Hotaru and words that she couldn't read laying on the ground between them. Yuuna leaned down to scoop up the cards and examine them, turning them over in her hands. "What are these things?"

"I'm not sure," Hotaru answered, reaching out to take one of them from Yuuna. She looked down at the card. "What is that I'm holding?"

"Looks like a lantern on a stick with some fireflies," the gunslinger girl remarked. "What does that stuff on it say?"

"It looks like English." Squinting, the other girl pulled the card close to her face to try to make sense of the words. "Ignis Volant Saggitarius...? Saggitarius is a Zodiac sign, but for the rest of it..."

"It means 'Firefly Archer,' and it's supposed to be a description of your personality," a new voice answered her. Both girls spun to find a man wearing the standard defensive robes of the game standing in the corner, where they both could have sworn there had been no one before. His hood was down, letting them see his short blond hair, intensely blue eyes, and clean-shaven face that seemed almost too perfect to be exactly natural.

Yuuna crossed her arms over her chest, and though her face couldn't be seen through her visor, her sour tone said it all. "I was wondering when you'd show your face around here. Come to show me up some more?"

The man shrugged. "Yes, but not at this exact instance. Having noticed what just went on here, I thought I'd drop by and enlighten the two of you about what's just happened, since neither of you have a frame of reference nor anyone nearby who could provide that exposition for you." Smirking, he turned toward the nearby door, as though he were going to make his way back out to the battlefield. "Of course, if you're not interested..."

"Wait!" Hotaru called out, stepping forward and holding her hand out in a halting gesture toward him. "Please, won't you tell us what these cards mean?"

Stopping, he turned and looked toward Hotaru's pleading expression, then over at Yuuna, then back at Hotaru, and finally sighed in resignation. "I never could resist a pretty girl asking in earnest. Alright, here's the deal. Those cards are proof of a provisional contract, otherwise known as a pactio. Since you're the one that appears on the card, miss, that makes you the _ministra_ and Yuuna the _magistra_. I am so sorry for you."

Hotaru giggled as Yuuna stepped forward threateningly, her fists planting on her hips. Before she could say anything, however, the man continued, "A pactio contract grants you an increased defensive and offensive buff from your _magistra_. Usually this draws on the person's magic pool, and I'll be the first to say that I'm as surprised as either of you ladies that Yuuna has any magic. The card is also the compact storage form of a unique artifact. To summon it, say '_adeat_,' and to make it turn back into the card, say '_abeat_.' Go ahead, give it a try."

Looking down at the card in her hand, Hotaru held it out away from her as though she were afraid it was going to bite her, then pronounced, "_Adeat_!"

There was an abrupt flash of light, and the card was gone, replaced with a shepherd's crook with a chouchin-type lantern hanging from the hook, producing a very faint amount of light. Four or five fireflies drifted out of the interior of the lantern, most flitting about at random, while one flew over to Yuuna and alighted on her helmet, and another did the same for Hotaru. Across the room, the man raised one hand, and another firefly drifted over to alight on his fingers.

"These are not your bog standard fireflies," he announced after a moment of study. "Oh, they're natural enough, but it appears that they can be directed by you mentally. They also produce quite a bit of heat, so I imagine you can have them set things on fire. All-in-all, quite a useful artifact." Lowering his hand, he glanced out a nearby window, as though gauging the state of the battle beyond. "Well, that should about be all the information you need for now. Yuuna, if you want to know more about the world of magic the two of you have just jumped into, then look up your teacher after the festival."

And with that, he turned and walked out of the building, vanishing with such quickness that it was almost as if he had never been there.

Hotaru watched him go a moment, then turned back to face Yuuna. "Yuuna-_san_, who was that? You seemed to know him."

Scoffing, Yuuna reached up her hands to cup the firefly that had landed on her head. The little insect showed no signs of fearing her, in fact hopping into her gloved hands of its own accord and illuminating the space between her fingers. "That guy's name is Stromric, but he just goes by Strom mostly. He's been a pain in my ass ever since the Kyoto field trip, where I supposedly got him fired from a job at the hotel he had. Ever since then he's always made it his goal in life to come by and one-up me in everything that I do."

Giggling, Hotaru held her lantern staff in one hand and looped her other arm around the gunslinger girl's neck. "Well, I can tell you about one way he's not going to one-up you, Yuuna-_san_. Tonight, after we've beaten all these 'bots, after _you've_ taken the top prize, we're going to go to the biggest victory party we can find, and then tomorrow I'll show you the time of your life." Her voice took on a slightly hesitant tone. "That is…if you're interested…I mean, you know… in me…"

"I-I am…" Yuuna whispered, though her helmet audio transmitted it loud enough to be heard. She cleared her throat, then nodded. "Y-Yeah, I'd l-like that."

It was Hotaru who first noticed the floating camera that drifted neurotically around the room, along with a faint voice that she could just barely register at the edge of her hearing.

Yuuna noticed a moment later, and furrowed her brow at the sight of what she recognized as Kazumi's camera. Playing a hunch, she activated the threat-assessment vision mode of her visor, watching the vision-enhancing software highlight the lines of the building interior in a muted yellow. Hundreds of IFF markers crowded into her vision as the visor utilized its uplink with the central command network to inform her of where her allies were. With a glance, she deactivated the IFF markers.

Before her, as if by magic, the visor revealed a hazy figure in a washed out blue-white color holding the camera, outlined in yellow, as the visor's electronics set the figure as a neutral combatant by default. But she recognized the face of the figure, her class' resident ghost, Sayo Aisaka.

"What's up, Sayo-_san_?"

At first, she could see Sayo's lips moving, but couldn't hear anything, so she ramped up the audio pickup in her helmet. "…hoping that you'd let me follow around behind you and record you in the fighting."

Yuuna blinked a few times, but got the basic gist of the message. Apparently, this had to do with that documentary of the battle that Kazumi had wanted to film of her, and since she was now the announcer of the event, she was having Sayo do the filming. She grinned, then remembered that Sayo couldn't see through her visor, so gave her a thumbs up. "Sure thing, Sayo-_san_, just be careful that you don't get shot!"

_Subway Tunnels, East Line, Exact Location Unknown  
__1851 hours_

Things had gradually gone from bad to worse as far as Takaki was concerned. _Damn my chronic bad luck._ His thoughts were not misplaced; not so long as they continued to run for their lives, enemy bullets whizzing past the fleeing squad. However, though they ran like the wind, everything seemed to slow down. So slow that Takaki had barely realized it when he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground before him. As he lay there in his slow world, he reflected, realizing just how often he got into trouble. Nothing like this of course, nothing that involved running from anime-esque Terminators as they shot some sort of magic bullets at him and his friends.

"Run dammit, run!" came the hoarse yell of the winded Yukimura, who gripped Takaki's sleeve and pulled him back to his feet. The Tanaka scout patrol's accuracy left something to be desired, their speed however did not. The distance between the two groups was closing rapidly, and both teams knew it. Yet there was hope, a light at the end of the tunnel. Literally in this case; Kazuki had signaled Takaki seconds earlier that the platform was within sight. "Taiyo, u-use it now!" strained Takaki through emaciated panting.

Skidding to a stop, Taiyo ducked down and quickly charged his launcher's last shot. Without hesitation, the elder Miyazaki spun in a 180 and squeezed off the deadly blast with a loud and clear, "_Jaculetur_!" The thunderous beam shot through the tunnel, illuminating the darkness and landing smack-dab in the middle of the pursuing scout party. Like so many of their automated comrades before them, the scouts stood little chance, the white magic engulfing and cremating them where they stood.

Collapsing to the floor, the amateur fire team attempted to catch their breaths. "H-how many...shot d-do we have left?" wheezed Mikuru, clearly the most physically traumatized; she was downright brilliant, just not the most fit. As all eyes fell on Kazuki, the silent friend had already calmed his breathing and was inspecting his own launcher reserves. Without a word, Kazuki raised his head and signaled with a lone finger.

"Shit, only one shot with the bazooka?!" Yukimura himself was still quite winded, but had recovered for the most part "Well, what about grenades? Or any explosives whatsoever?" inquired the ebony haired sophomore.

His worries were validated when the added explosives of everyone came out to only about eight catalyst grenades.

"That's not very much, not for a useful defense anyway, these clankers are too fast," commented Taiyo in his usual pessimistic deadpan.

Takaki slowly took everything in, thinking carefully, _What would you do, Hiro?_

The light switch flipped on and Takaki's face lit up, not with joy but sudden inspiration. He still had his doubts, he still had his bad luck, but it was well worth the risk and would look epic in the end. That's all that really mattered. "Yuki-_kun_ can you still make a bang?"

A spark flickered in the eyes of Yukimura, "Hell yeah! I can rig anything you want to blow, I even brought some flash flares from the shop." A mischievous grin appeared from ear to ear, preceding a somewhat evil chuckle that emanated from the sophomore.

Satisfied with the given answer, Takaki turned to the quietest member of the group. "Kazu-kun you're our best shot, your superior aim and calculations will be key."

Kazuki's only response was a nod of acknowledgement as he hoisted his launcher to his shoulder.

"Gather all the grenades, we're denying them our tunnels. No clankers allowed!" boasted Takaki, arms crossed and defiance expressed.

Mikuru was the first to question such a plan. "How? We're only five, with a whole Martian battalion marching towards us."

Takaki smirked as he helped his friends one after another to their feet. "We're going to flush them out, out of our metro and down the drains."

Not the clear answer the rest of them were looking for.

"Uh, yeah, care to elaborate?" probed Taiyo, not too eager to participate in whatever stupid scheme or plan was about to crawl out of Takaki's mouth.

Laughing, Takaki smiled and said, "No need, we're gonna flood this place."

"What!?" came the voices of everyone, including the tight-lipped Kazuki, who now displayed likewise surprise.

"Isn't that a bit much, isn't that crossing the line of a thing called 'collateral damage?'" pressed the dumbfounded Taiyo, seizing Takaki by the shoulder and pulling him so that they were face to face. "What you're suggesting is destruction of miles of public and private property! Why on earth do you think we'd get away with something so severe?"

Takaki calmly removed Taiyo's hand from his shoulder, and with half a sigh he shook his head at his over-cautious friend. "Didn't you hear the radio earlier? No one's stopping those Martian bastards from laying waste to the homes and stores of civilians! If we don't stop them here, they will use these tunnels to ambush the rest of our allies! You would damn the fates of our friends and fellow Mahorans, just so some property can be saved!? Buildings, tunnels, and pipes can be repaired and replaced! This is what anyone else would do; this is what Hiro would do!"

Taiyo couldn't believe Takaki; his emotion had replaced his sense of logic. However, that is why they were so similar, that is why Taiyo knew better than to continue this trivial argument with Takaki. "Very well, how're we going to do this?" He knew he wouldn't like the answer, especially an answer influenced by Murakami-_senpai_, but what real choice did he have?

Pleased with Taiyo's unusual but welcomed acceptance of his yet to be mentioned plan, Takaki slapped his colleague on the shoulder. "Thank you. If this was just a game, I probably would not ask this of you. But this has moved beyond a game, our people are vanishing at the hands of an unknown enemy. We'll get these fuckers."

"Hey, you guys done? That battalion'll be here any minute now, what's the plan? What'cha want me to do with these grenades?" This time Yukimura questioned in rapid succession, hoping to get a straight answer this time.

"Remember not too long ago, there was an accident in this tunnel. The car derailed and smashed up against the side wall. And everyone was surprised, because no one was hu-"

"Get to the point…" cut Kazuki's quiet voice, though sharp enough to send a shiver down everyone's spine.

"Okay, so here's the plan, we find that sweet spot, we rig all our grenades together, place the surprise on the sweet spot, lure that battalion in, convince them of our surrender, and when I call for it, Kazuki will blow the charges with his last rocket. That should apply enough force. The explosion will tear through the wall to the underground freshwater aqueducts, flooding this tunnel and all tunnels connecting to this one. This will foil all of those clankers who think they can get the drop on the defenders of Mahora!"

As everyone considered the plan, they found it was definitely full of holes but was worth the risk. "Okay if this wor-" began Mikuru.

"When it works." interjected Takaki with his new found grin.

"...yeah, when this works, how are we supposed to get out of here before we're swept away too?" queried Mikuru, her faith in this plan still questionable.

"What kind of question is that? That's obvious, we use the platform stairs of course. Then we can get back to a save point, replenish our supplies and save our epic scores. One thousand droids is some serious points!" laughed Takaki; softly clapping his hands he spun around to nod at each member of his squad before moving to help with the plan.

Mikuru raised her hand and spoke softly, "Umm, but I thought you said this wasn't a ga-"

"We've made it this far! Chop-chop, we don't want to keep those clankers waiting!"

_Mahora University City Streets, Defense Point Bravo, Second Defense Line  
__1852 hours_

Chao watched with a hint of amusement on her face as, two streets over, Takahata-_sensei_ blasted a massive hole in the side of her mouse-faced demon, crippling the demon for the moment and allowing the mages working to seal away the creature the chance they needed to do their job while its 'HP was low,' to use a gamer's line of thinking.

Too bad for them they wouldn't get the chance to perform their task.

"_I have the shot,"_ Mana's voice buzzed in her ear.

"Hold," she responded. "Itsuki, your new objective is to lead the assault on the World Tree-_ne_. Take command of the forces there, halt the advance temporarily, and set up defensive positions-_yo_. Tatsumiya and I will handle the 'heroes' at Bravo."

"_Secure defenses, Master? Not press the assault?"_

"No, I have something special planned for them-_yo_."

"_As you command, Master."_

Chao watched for a few moments more as the mages went about their tasks, scurrying like little insects around a felled lion. "Whenever you are ready, Tatsumiya."

_Mahora University Intramural Stadium, Defense Point Bravo  
__The Same Time_

Takamichi Takahata always prided himself on having a situational awareness that bordered on precognition, and it did not fail him now. His head snapped around, followed immediately by an _iaiken_ energy blast that intercepted the shot aimed for his head at a distance of thirty feet. The magic of the bullet activated regardless, generating that ominous black sphere that they were becoming all-too-familiar with. "It's a sniper!" he called out to the other mages. "Be on your guard!"

"Damn!" Nijuuin-_sensei_, a mage teacher who had a bit too much fondness for food, called, then turned to those under his command. "Erect barriers at maximum power! They're probably employing barrier-penetrating rounds so use the necessary countermeasures according to plan!"

In the background of all this activity, Asuna, Setsuna, Misora, and Cocone, who had made their way over to this area of the fighting, looked completely lost and out of place.

_Unknown Location  
__The Same Time_

Mana maintained a neutral expression as she watched the black displacement sphere of her initial shot dissipate through her scope. _Leave it to Takahata of the AAA to neutralize my shot like that,_ she thought to herself, then reported into her headset, "Primary target neutralization failed."

"_Not to worry-_ne_,"_ Chao responded. _"Continue with your other targets. I will deal with him myself."_

"Roger," Mana said, then shut out the world around her.

Setting the crosshairs of her German-built PSG-1 sniper rifle-an idle thought passed through her mind that the _Wehrmacht_-obsessed Yuuna would love to get a hold of this weapon-on the head of one of the anonymous mages, she sucked in a breath, held it, and squeezed the trigger.

She watched the shot impact against the mage's barrier, and his first warning should have been the fact that the bullet remained in place, rather than deflect away. She could see his mouth moving, probably assuring his comrades that he was fine.

If only they were so lucky.

The magicks of the bullet activated, enveloping the mage in a black sphere of energy that started to spiral around itself, growing ever smaller with each rotation, until it finally blinked out of existence, the mage taken along with it. This set the other mages to panicking, but before they could take cover or increase the power of their barricades, Mana shifted her sights and continued to fire precisely and carefully, sniping and eliminating another three mages before their minds could even begin to process the danger they were in.

She spotted the flamboyant forms of Asuna and Setsuna amongst the miniscule number of mages that managed to reach cover, and decided they'd make excellent targets of opportunity. _Don't think just because I can't see you, I can't hit you,_ she thought, then flicked a switch on the side of her rifle's scope. A new laser projection appeared inside her scope's field of vision, a tech upgrade courtesy of Chao that allowed her to accurately bank shots off of objects to hit targets that otherwise had full cover from her.

With her free eye, she looked into another monitor set within sight that showed her a thermal imaging scan, revealing the exact locations that her targets were taking cover at. Utilizing the two pieces of technology, she aimed in a manner that her bank shot would strike Asuna in the chest. _Let's have you go away first, Kagurazaka._

She fired, and watched a distant flash of light as her shot ricocheted off a bell tower and angle in toward her target. However, she had underestimated Setsuna's heightened combat senses, and the half-crow _hanyou_ managed to tackle Asuna out of the way. The bullet ricocheted again off the spot Asuna had vacated, bouncing off wildly and striking the shorter of the two nun girls.

_Mmm, unfortunate. Still and all, they're not primary targets._ She shifted her aim again, and fired a second shot, this one aimed at one of her targets, the fat professor with the food obsession.

"_Excellent work-_ne_, Tatsumiya,"_ Chao said as the professor disappeared inside the displacement vortex. _"Leave the rest to me and continue with your other targets-yo."_

"Understood," Mana said, standing up from her prone position, picking up her rifle and the thermal monitor and moving to the second spot she had scouted.

_Mahora University Intramural Stadium, Defense Point Bravo  
__The Same Time_

"…That was probably some kind of compulsory teleportation magic," Takahata was explaining as Chao approached within earshot, hidden by a single-use active camouflage device. "I'm sure they're fine."

"Oh, you think so?" Misora asked, obviously still highly-rattled by her _magistra_ disappearing before her very eyes.

"Putting such a power into a bullet would limit the teleportation distance to about three kilometers," the experienced mage continued. "What would be the purpose of that?"

Chao glanced down at her feet as the camouflage faded, her form slowly hazing into view. Stepping forward, she spoke, "Of course, that may be effective in a real battlefield-_ne_, but in this case, removing someone by only three kilometers would be pretty useless-_yo_." She grinned as she watched the shivers run up the spines of her classmates. "But what if it were not three kilometers away, but three hours into the future-_ne_? Would that not change things? It's done by a nifty little combination of science and magic-_yo_."

The two warriors were nothing if not quick on the uptake, dropping into ready stances. "Chao Lingshen!" Asuna hissed, her armored fingers clenching around the leather bindings of her sword.

The Chinese genius smirked, and continued on as though she were not facing down two young women who wanted very much to run her through on their blades, ignoring Takahata and Misora. "I'm impressed-_yo_, that you managed to find a way around my trap and find a way back. Tell me, what was my future like?"

"It was a living hell, you crazy bitch!" Asuna snarled. "Everybody thought we were freaks and we had to fight our own friends to get back here to stop this madness!"

"Madness-_ne_?" Chao raised an eyebrow, a sudden serpentine stillness in her expression. But then she smiled and waved it off. "But, you know, this isn't Sparta-_ne_." Her expression sobered. "I admit, I have to praise you for this operation of yours-_ne_. It took me by surprise and forced me to alter my plan. I never expected things to go like this. To think that your ragtag band of students managed to defeat my first wave. Good thing I had the foresight to build more than just those twenty-five hundred units-_ne_. You deserve praise."

"You've got some nerve," Setsuna said, her words laced with the steely resolve of a samurai, "showing up like this."

Chao's expression darkened. "Setsuna-_san_, you shouldn't. The outcome will be the same as before-_ne_."

The swordswoman snarled, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood.

Then Chao returned to her carefree smile and asked, as though discussing the weather, "Was it Negi-_bozu_ that came up with this plan? Astounding. So. Where is he, hmm?"

Asuna stepped forward, brandishing her sword before her. "Negi's not here, you moron! I'm going to take you down myself!"

Takahata shoved a hand into his pocket, which drew a flicker of a glance from Chao, as Setsuna thought to herself, _For Chao to show up herself like this… This is really bad…_

Chao actually giggled as Asuna challenged her. "Well, I see you're all ready to go, Asuna-_san_. Fine-_ne_. If that's how you want to go, even though I really think only Negi-_bozu_ has even a chance in hell against me-_yo_."

And then suddenly she was directly in Asuna's face, well inside her strike range, delivering a devastating straight jab into her stomach that shattered her armor plating and flung her backwards a dozen feet, electricity arcing over her body.

"Asuna-_san_!" Setsuna exclaimed.

"Enthusiasm is not enough-_yo_," Chao proclaimed, standing with her back to Setsuna, striking hand upraised with currents of electricity arcing between points on her suit. She calmly watched Asuna flail about on the ground, one hand held protectively over her stomach, the other casting about for her dropped sword as she struggled in vain to get back on her feet, her expression a mixture of fear, anguish, and rage as she coughed blood, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Damn you!" Setsuna shouted as she dashed forward, sword sliding out of her sheath as she moved immediately into the strike, aiming the center draw of her blade for Chao's waist…

And with even more suddenness than she had struck Asuna, Chao was _behind_ Setsuna, the swordswoman's blade cutting through empty air, the four hovering funnels aimed directly at her back, each one humming with stored energy, the emitters glowing an angry red.

"Excellent form-_ne_. But I wonder-_yo_, are you prepared to cross that line and take a human life?"

Then the rooftop exploded in smoke and flame.

_Defense Point Foxtrot, Command Center  
__1852 hours_

The major fighting that pervaded the entrance to the international high school raged on as hard as ever, the ever eternal droid assault cracking down hard on the frontline defenders. "They just keep coming! What's up with this shit?! Oi, watch your left! There are more on th-shit, more ammo! Get those supplies up here!" bellowed Foxtrot's self-proclaimed frontline leader, Kanji Tachibana.

"It's no use Tachibana-_san_! Every time we kill one of the shit-tins, five more spring up in his ugly place!" cried one of the other freshman defenders, lobbing a grenade into their ranks, his orange rimmed glasses reflecting cerulean as the magical flames consumed a handful of oncoming droids. Sweat trickling from the tips of his brown hair as he whipped around to regard his fellow students bringing in more ammo; their robes, like his were scarred with burn marks either from their own weapons for minor grazes from the enemy.

Kanji smiled amidst the panic, things looked bad, but so long as they had weapons and ammo they could fight, and so long as they maintained this bottleneck, the enemy would just keep piling up. "Aww shut it ya panzies! If anyone can hold out with diminishing supplies, we can! Just keep doing what you're doing, we'll be like those warrior dudes at Thermopylae!"

Nobody bothered to remind him that the Spartans at Thermopylae all died.

_Mahora University Intramural Stadium, Defense Point Bravo  
__The Same Time_

"I'm impressed, Takahata-_sensei_," Chao said, standing over the fallen forms of her classmates, staring across the distance at her former teacher, who looked suitably roughed up from their short clash while she remained entirely unharmed. "Even despite the odds against you, you've managed to hold me off-_ne_. Your combat experience is showing."

He didn't answer, and in the ensuing silence, broken only by distant rumbling explosions and weapons clatter, her 'Wasp' funnels whispered through the air around her in random motions that made striking them nearly impossible.

"More specifically," she continued, "you've been through more battles than I have."

Takahata was weary, from more than just the brief struggle against his former student. "You may not cause any deaths today, but if magic's existence is revealed, it will unleash chaos on the world. Do you understand, Chao-_kun_?"

She smirked and leaned her head slightly to the left. "Of course I do-_yo_. This method has the lowest risk and fewest problems. You should be aware of that, Takahata-_sensei_. As for any unexpected political and military events during the next few decades, I'll monitor and deal with them accordingly. I'm prepared-_ne_, both technologically and financially."

"I see," Takahata said, and he did, somewhat. A clear picture was beginning to form in his mind, a picture that said Chao was far more than even what she was today revealing herself to be. He had always prided himself on his ability to read people, and from her, he could sense no evil intentions. To the contrary, her actions seemed fueled by a desire to _save_. "Still, you're taking a tremendous risk. No one with similar methods has ever succeeded in controlling the world."

She held up two fingers of her left hand. "There's two reasons for that-_ne_. First of all, those people you mention, like Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, and their ilk, had made their bids for power with the desire to gain power for power's sake. The power is not what I seek-_yo_, it is but a means to an end. Secondly, they had the limited resources and technology of their time in which to make their bids, and in that, they were doing it wrong. I have technology and means which you could only dream of, and from that, it will only be a short time before the world stabilizes." She smiled sinisterly. "Trust me, I'll do it right."

"You say that you seek power as a means to an end," he prodded. "What end?"

"Surely in your line of work, you must be capable of seeing the truth," she answered. "The only way to change injustice and inequality is to do it by force."

He stared at her coolly, hands tucked into his pockets. "You're lying. Injustice and inequality have nothing to do with your motive, you just use them as an excuse. What is your true intent?"

She regarded him curiously. "Hard to fool, as usual-_ne_, Takahata-_sensei_." She raised her hands in a devil-may-care gesture, then turned away and looked at the smoke rising from distant parts of the city in combat. "Okay, I'll tell you. Everything I'm doing, I'm doing for the sake of our future. You know those guys over at Echo, Fireteam Charlie? The _Halo_ games that they love so much?"

Turning back to face her old teacher, all the humor and mirth was gone from her expression, leaving the impression of a combat-scarred soldier to the older man. "They're not just games-_yo_," she stated harshly. "I come from the future in which we really _are_ losing that fight, and there's not a damn thing we can do to stop them. All our technology has failed in the face of theirs, and they know where Earth is-_ne_."

Expectedly, Takahata looked as if he'd had the rug pulled out from under him. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd run into someone who was convinced that a certain video game or movie was reality, but there was an awful lot of evidence supporting Chao's words. The technology she seemed to be able to produce at will was the sort of things that fit perfectly into those games, and he could sense absolutely no deception, or delusion, in her words.

She had to be telling the truth. She came from a future in which humanity was a greatly endangered species, and she was here now trying to change the past to save the future. How could he, how could any of them, put the secret of magic before her noble, though bloodily-conceived, goal?

"You know I'm telling the truth," she said quietly, producing a palm-sized flat metal disc in her left hand. "In case you need more convincing-_yo_…" She threw the device at him, and he caught it and turned it over in his hand, trying to decipher it. Helpfully, she explained, "Turn the grid side up and press the blue button along the edge."

He followed her instructions, and a blue column of light flashed into the air over the device, revealing a space panorama of Earth, with hundreds of alien ships moving toward the planet's surface. It _looked_ like the images he had seen from the game _Halo 2_, but the graphics of the video game paled in comparison to what he was seeing. He heard Chao's voice from somewhere offscreen, _"I wonder, sometimes-_ne_, could magic have caused this war to run any different?"_

A man's voice answered, _"Doubtful. In this day and age, technology is far too entrenched. The sudden revelation of magic would provoke a civil war. Not something we need while we're fighting for our very survival against the Covenant."_

The point of view of the image turned to the left, revealing a man wearing a dark blue uniform looking out of what had to be a hangar bay window of one of the space stations from the game. Chao's voice sounded again, making it obvious that this video was a recording of her personal experience. _"And now, there are barely any surviving mages left anyway."_

"_All we can do, is hope that technology and humanity's spirit will keep us alive,"_ the man said as he produced a pactio card. It was a simple paper copy of a card, that much Takahata could tell even through the hologram, but what was remarkable was that it was a paper copy of Nodoka's pactio card. He froze the playback.

"I see now," he said as he tossed the device back to Chao. She didn't bother to catch it; one of her funnels glowed briefly before destroying the device with a red laser blast. Nodding at her desire to keep such information secret, he continued, "Your reactions to your classmates when you first came here."

She nodded as well. "I didn't expect to be put into a class with the ancestors of all the Marines that died to save me-_ne_. It was…hard."

"I can sympathize," he said quietly. "I agree with your intentions, but your methods are wrong, Chao-_kun_. There must be a better way."

She shook her head violently, tears floating away from her face. "There _isn't_," she hissed. "Who would believe me-_yo_? If I took this before the Council of Mages, they'd _execute_ me, just like the Office of Naval Intelligence tried to."

"Chao-_kun_, the Council wouldn't do that…"

"Wouldn't they?" she cut in. "_Wouldn't they!?_ Would they not execute as a heretic some girl who came before them, claiming that humanity will become extinct in five hundred years due to an unstoppable alien armada bent on our destruction, that the only hope we have of surviving is to reveal magic to the mundane world?"

Takahata was silent. He hated to admit it, but she was right. The Council of Mages would not look kindly on such a proclamation. She'd get a life sentence as an ermine, if they were feeling magnanimous.

She sniffed, then wiped her eyes and recovered herself. "Won't you join me, Takahata-_sensei_? We may not live to see the future that we've changed, but certainly it won't be any worse for our efforts-_ne_."

He was taken aback by that offer, and he briefly considered it, glancing away for just a moment. Then he realized the inherent danger of taking his eyes off of her, and looked back to find her gone. Just before he felt the touch of two bullets against the small of his back.

"I'm sorry-_yo_," she said from behind him. "But you hesitated, and I can't afford that at this stage." She ran an electrical charge through her gloves and into the bullets, triggering the displacement effect. Dropping the expended cartridges, she stepped away and looked into the vortex that was enveloping her former teacher, using the power of her own Cassiopeia to temporarily stall the final displacement. "I'll see you again in three hours, Takahata-_sensei_, after I've changed history for the better. I'll still want you to join me, then. Please think about it-_ne_."

She released her hold on the effects of the displacement, and turned away as her former teacher vanished into thin air. She held out her open left palm, and two more bullets materialized from her metadimensional storage space. Sighing, she turned and said to herself, "I'm surprised that Takahata-_sensei_ actually listened to me, and believes me. I can't expect the same from Asuna-_san_ and Setsuna-_san_, so I'll just have them disappear no…"

But her two classmates were suspiciously absent from where she had left them. She looked around the rooftop, ignoring the previously-damaged demon as it righted itself and continued onward. It took her a moment to realize what had to have happened. "Ah, Misora. Didn't expect that-_ne_. No worries, she can't do anything anyway."

Sighing again, she produced another holographic device, this one a master control transmitter for Kazumi's broadcasting station, and tried to bring herself back into the mindset of playing the evil villain. For the sake of everyone, she couldn't show weakness in front of these people.

_Residential District, Rear of the Command Center, Defense Point Foxtrot  
__1853 hours_

In the many houses that covered the rear entrance of the command center laid the skilled and elite members of Fireteam Charlie, though they themselves were unhappy with such an assignment. "Rear guard? What kinda bullshit assignment is this?" scoffed one of the twenty others, all with mutual feelings.

Another nodded, dully fingering his ammo belt out of boredom "Yeah, yeah. Something about how they need people watching their asses cause they're too busy up front," sighed the disappointed loader.

The sniper in the corner spat once, ejecting the piece of gum he had been chewing on since the action started. He reached to retrieve yet another piece from his breast pocket when something caught his eye. It was brief, only a glimmer but still something, something beyond the hill. He quickly turned to the other two men in the current room. "Stow it, we've got company...get everyone into positions," whispered the sniper, slipping a fresh and clean clip into his rifle.

Less than a quarter mile from where the members of Fireteam Charlie sat preparing themselves, laid a company of a near two hundred Tanakas, split into three strike teams. Laid out flat as to avoid detection, the cobble street they occupied was open as could be with only the hilltop's rise to keep them concealed. Dead silent though they were, occasional individuals looked down to check their weapons, fastening the clips and ensuring that the safeties were indeed off.

Commander unit 677 crouched against the entrance of one of the many homes and apartments around them. There it waited, as silent as its troops, gazing forward for a sign, a shimmer. Then he saw them, five of them, as plain as day for him but invisible to an untrained human's eye. The ethereal silhouettes approached swiftly in a manner that foreshadowed importance, halting abruptly at the head of the line, ready to advise the others of their report. As commander 677 crept towards the five, the spectres deactivated their active camo. The elite special forces, a frightfully efficient squad, each colder than the last.

The special forces leader observed the approaching commander keenly; it was quite difficult to make eye contact with these inferior grunts. "Are your troops ready commander?"

The answer followed in the form of a salute and a nod from the faceless warrior. "Yes, ma'am. 'Hades' special strike force is ready to deploy. At your control, strike leader."

The special forces Chachamaru unit responded with a hushed nod of her own. Reactivating her camouflage, the strike leader crawled to the rise, raising her head just enough to see. It'd gone quiet; there was a good chance they were now compromised. How unfortunate for them.

The mighty sun was still setting, painting the orange sky with hues of red and faint magenta. The crickets and cicadas were crying their lamenting songs from their own hiding places, acknowledging the many who had already fallen.

The transparent wraith retreated from sight, falling back to commander 677, and spoke without reappearing, "Take the first squad, straight up the middle, hard and fast. Move quickly, we'll be behind you with the second and third units."

She turned back to regard the cafe that faced the road they would be traversing. Crouching lower she turned to the commander. "Go."

The infantry commander turned to the first of the three strike forces behind him, waving them up whilst raising his own rifle. The initial two vertical lines of infantry rose to their feet, following the commander they followed each other single file in four separate lines. As the infantry moved forward, the strike leader and her squad moved farther back.

Fully engaging their servomotor joints, the first strike team sprinted over the hill and was now moving down the main street. The sound of thunder following in their wake, the rhythmic pounding of heavy footsteps echoed through the empty streets.

"FIRE!"

The human voice was only barely audible over the thundering footfalls, but it made no real difference. The second sound that rang out ripped through the air itself, and tore through the third line of charging Tanakas. Three of the seven hit halted as though they had run into a wall, while the other four flew forward headless, due to their now uncontrolled momentum. Unruffled, the commander increased his speed, pushing past eighty MPH in a heartbeat. All the while, ten more Tanaka units fell from varying lines as more sounds of gunfire shattered the stillness, with even more bullets piercing their targets.

Breaking from formation, the units that had not yet been cut down by live fire sought the little cover that the street provided, ducking behind mailboxes and into foyers.

"Enemy engagement! Down, down, down!" came the synthetic yell of a select tanaka unit.

"Take cover!" came the rasp of another before a .50-caliber round exploded through its right eye, blowing parts of its brain core out the back of its head.

Rounds continued to rip through objects and houses, regardless of where their enemy took shelter the special units of Fireteam Charlie kept up a constant wave of fire from the cafe. Between the .50-caliber M2 machine gun on the first floor and the concentrated fire from the upper windows, the fireteam effectively kept a relentless bullet wall on the enemy.

Two units made it through the fusillade and were taking cover in an alleyway, Tanaka infantry commander 677 and a single other Tanaka. "Where is the rest of the forc-"

New thunder cutting off his speech, it appeared as though an M60 machine gun just opened up on the second floor, as though the .50 didn't disrupt communication enough.

Acting on default adaptability setting, the other Tanaka peered around the corner just enough to aim before actually opening up a weak line of suppressing fire. Commander 677 quickly seized the other unit by its shoulder plate and pulled it back to cover as a burst of machine gun fire knocked off the dry wall inches to the left of its head. "Where did they all go!?"

The grunt shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea!" replied the lower ranking unit as it went back to firing ineffectively at the cafe.

Down the road, units were still desperately attempting to find cover. They did not fear death, but they were no use to their master in their current position. Several Tanaka sergeants stood apart from the others, shouting orders to move up and waving for reinforcements.

"Let's go, MGs!" called the frontal sergeant who was taking cover behind a miniature wall of its own units as it raised its rifle to blindly fire at the enemy while the rear sergeant was still pulling troops over the hilltop.

"Bring up the heavies! Bring up the Type-IIs, we need suppressive fire! Let's get our men out of there!"

And as an answer to their prayers, four Type-II Heavy Tanakas began advancing from the rear, a humming sound accompanying their movement as they began spooling the barrels of their Dillon miniguns.

As all unfolded before her, the special forces leader shook her head, _So much for surprise assault, her team should've been more careful_, she thought to herself as she plotted their next course of action.

"Second squad, you're with units two and four! Flank left, near that warehouse over there, ignore these obstacles and head straight to the high school, contact me once there. Third squad, with me and units three and five, we flank right to the shops." As all units confirmed their orders and began to move, she turned to look behind her. "Komodos, support the Heavies and the First, move up the center!"

The special forces units engaged their camouflage and moved up. The assault team began spreading out.

Up ahead the heavies were already taking fire, and returning in kind. The machine gun on the upper floor was the first to spot them. "HEAVIES!" yelled the loader loud enough for the fireteam members in the next few rooms over to hear, who began concentrating fire on the heavy Tanakas as well. This left only the busy .50 and ten other defenders with small arms to deal with the increasing number of advancing Martian infantry.

Taking point, the special forces leader and her sister units moved unhindered through the shops and apartments that outlined the western side of the university. The leader did not dare expose herself around the corner, not with the concentrations of fire on both sides of the street. Even if their current location was not under attack, precaution was always necessary. Her vision flashed shades of reds, oranges, and yellows; infrared was so useful against these humans, especially when remaining under cover was advisable.

The thermal vision detected twenty enemies occupying the cafe and the two additional stores around it. Two humans were constantly headed in and out of the back doors, most likely reloaders and ammo runners. _Good, that means we're closer than expected to Foxtrot's ammo supplies,_ she thought to herself. The one that caught her attention the most was a single prone signature by the warehouse, a sniper? "Units two and four, there is an unknown enemy, prone near the warehouse. Most likely a sniper or spotter, have someone draw out the target and eliminate it," she ordered over her built-in radio as she deactivated her camouflage. She now waited for the signature to disappear.

Breaking down a small side gate, the shorter special forces units two and four rushed to a protruding gate corner for cover, disengaging their camo as they did, while their sergeant escort attempted to find farther out cover.

It failed.

A single shot rang out above all the others, a hole appearing in the head of the infantry unit as the droid crumpled to the ground, a splatter of hydraulic fluid marking the point where the heavy anti-material round had penetrated through the other side.

The special forces units looked at one another and nodded, both coming to the same conclusion. The sniper, seeing as how he hadn't fired on them, must have suffered a restricted field of vision; though he must have sight on all three roads that passed by the cafe. Hardly a credible threat to the pair, whether he was trained or not. As the second unit withdrew an optical cable, unit four readied her weapon. There was a slight pause, before unit two confirmed, "Sniper, warehouse stairs, second floor, left." She gave a slight smirk before adding, "He's watching the main road, didn't think we could see his muzzle flash did he?"

"Big brother was right, they don't think very highly of us do they?" asked unit four in return, casually stepping out from behind the wall, locking onto her target, and firing one shot.

As the sniper vanished into the spherical abyss of the round, she felt a small tingle of satisfaction in a successful elimination. She then spotted the heavy machine gunner, or the loader at least. She knew that her strike leader had ordered her not to bother, but eliminating the gunner would preserve more units, which would benefit the mission. The second unit had already moved up the steady line of the advancing second squad. Patiently waiting, unit four gazed down her sights at the loader. "Stupid M-E-A-T-BAG…"

The man didn't even see it coming, a minor flash in his peripheral vision, nothing more. He barely even had enough time to react to the pain of the displacement round entering his right cheek. The black sphere engulfed him and shrank him down to nothing, the gunner had only enough time to hear his loader's echoing. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"

Almost instantaneously, he ducked his own head and turned the M2 and its fury on the shot's origin, or what he assumed was the position as he saw a handful of Tanakas pass. "Goddammit, DIE YOU SHIT-TINS!"

Luckily for unit four, these shots were wild and desperate, and none landed in proximity to injure her. Sneering in a way that'd make her commandant proud, unit four engaged her active camo and quickly dashed down the street after her comrades as the M2 temporarily overheated.

Realizing that they were no longer facing the threat of the heavy machine gun, many of the first squad withdrew from their cover and joined with the heavies to create their own wall of bullets, retribution. The counter attack was far from a massive victory but still worth it. Commander 677 counted at least four spheres that erupted inside the cafe, mostly on the second floor, leaving only the three men on the machine guns upstairs, and twelve fireteam members down stairs. As the remaining defenders either fell behind cover or retreated to nearby buildings, the two heavy machine guns still proved a threat to their advance. The commander waved up his units to rush the building, they had the edge now.

Cooled down and reloaded, the gunner of the M2 opened up once more on the right flank, unaware of the advancing party in front of him. "Come on clankers! Come get your half-inch serving of hot metal!"

Much like the man he trusted to load the weapon, he hadn't noticed the sprinting Tanaka unit before it was too late. Lobbing a flashbang through the window, the Tanaka grunt ducked before the windowsill, sheltering himself from the blinding tool. Four more Tanakas sprinted into the building, smashing down the door in the process. The team swept through the stunned defenders quickly, popping off only one round for each, five more spheres engulfed members of Fireteam Charlie.

Regaining his senses slightly, the gunner fumbled around for his weapon only to find the business end of an enemy FAMAS in his face. He scoffed as he looked up at the expressionless soldier, its finger slowly moving to pull the trigger. "Rear guard? What kinda bullshit assignment was this?"

His answer came in the form of silence as the tanaka pulled the trigger. The team emerged from the house, the lead one placing a finger to its ear, "Cafe clear, main threat silenced, reported six enemies eliminated. Total estimated enemies still in area: seven."

Catching a glimpse of this, the special forces commander motioned in front of her. "Unit three, take our units and clear that sector on the right. Unit five, you're with me."

Nodding, the short-haired female unit stood up and headed down the side street, ordering the rest of the third to fan out through the buildings. "Ten of you, with me! The rest of you, search through the shops and buildings, shoot all you find!"

Merging with the rest of their advancing forces, the two other units proceeded left to search the area around the main street. As the two of them hugged the wall of the nearest building, they watched as the heavy Tanakas continued to pepper all the nearby buildings with bullets, while the infantry kicked and smashed through the doors of homes to begin their sweeps.

They stopped at the entrance of the cafe, quickly regarding the handiwork of their forces. Their attention was called by the approach of Commander 677. "Your orders ma'am?"

"Reassume command, have your troops start clearing these buildings, two a house." She gazed up to see the first of the three Komodo walkers heading down the street towards their location. "You may use any force necessary commander, including our new reinforcements." She paused, tilting her head to one side as she received new orders. "The commandant would prefer if you can take any hostiles alive."

The commander nodded in response to the first orders but couldn't help but be confused. "Prisoners? I wasn't aware that the commandant was feeling merciful."

"Oh, that's a negative commander. The commandant only wishes those captives to be kept for something special, a demonstration," she said with a shake of her head, her emerald hair flowing around her shoulders.

"I see, very well ma'am," commander 677 answered with a bow, then proceeded to return to its troops. "Two man squads, search every house, apprehend all opposition! Komodos move up and support where needed."

The nearest of the larger, six-legged walkers marched up the street, battering aside any obstacles in its path with its sheer mass. As it reached the intersection at which the two special forces units stood, it focused its attention on the building capping the intersection, swinging around the underslung dual turret and sighting the building.

Curious, the two special forces units watched as the walker fired a single energy burst into the building. The effects were clear even for a low power round; the building's side wall erupted in a large flash, showering the street with bricks and dry wall, and blanketing the immediate area in dust.

Out stumbled a single student, covered in the dry wall he had up until a second ago been hiding behind. The student's eyes were completely glazed over, such was clear even through the lingering blanket of dust. He muttered something, but was in such a state of shock it was hardly comprehensible.

The special forces commander's eyes never left him. After analysis, she realized this Mahoran's brain was too scrambled to register where he was or what he was doing. _Humans, pitiful creatures, most driven by fear, they fumble in their ignorance resisting the inevitable. Brother, you will forgive me if it's only one._ All of this ran through her head as she raised her pistol, and aimed it directly at the young man's chest.

Without further thought nor hesitation, she pulled the trigger. Faster than the stunned defender could react, the bullet exited the chamber and planted itself deep into his chest. The student toppled backwards, the shadowy void absorbed his entire being and dissipating before his body made contact with the concrete below.

The special forces commander turned away before the displacement sphere finished dissipating, vanishing herself as her active camouflage engaged, sending silent orders to her team to continue on to the main objective.

_World Tree Plaza, Allied Main Camp  
__1855 hours_

The droid forces had halted their advance just short of the fourth defense line, generating a collective sigh of relief from the defense forces stationed at the highest-profile defense point. For now, all was silent as the droids marshaled their forces and the defenders continued to stay behind cover, unwilling to expose themselves despite the apparent lull in the fighting. Even Kazumi was crouched behind her broadcasting station, uncertain if the droids would target her and unwilling to find out.

"This situation is looking grim," the reporter whispered into her microphone. "At all defense points, the enemy's superior firepower and numbers have crushed the momentum of the coalition forces. Even now, droid forces are on the verge of capturing the allied main camp. Can Mahora's Mage Knights counter the enemy's offensive and snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat?"

Yuuna crouched behind the low wall at the edge of the upper level of the plaza, with Hotaru on her right and two of her ODST-cosplaying squadmates, Sou Matsunaga and Katsuki Nishihara, on her left. The remaining seven were split into two sniper teams placed in buildings that flanked the main route to the plaza on both sides. Kazumi's camera, manipulated by Sayo, floated just off the ground behind the three Helljumpers on the ground, recording the events.

"_They're still just sitting there,"_ Hartley reported from his sniper position.

"_What the hell are they waiting for?"_ Hatsu asked as he observed from the window Hartley was also watching out of.

Yuuna had no answer for that, and the idle thought crossed her mind that she'd have to give the recordings of their radio chatter to Kazumi later to put in her documentary. She wondered what the reporter girl would name it. She looked to the side as Akira and Fuka rushed to their cover in a crouch, keeping low to avoid detection.

"I really, really don't like this," Katsuki said, fingering the thumb guard of his assault rifle, built to resemble the new MA5C assault rifle for _Halo 3_. "Can I call in the rain now?"

"They're not going to approve a fire mission anyway," Matsunaga answered, the oldest member of the squad also being the voice of reason. "So you get to do your eleven-bravo job, not your thirteen-fox."

"Terrific," Katsuki muttered sarcastically.

Down closer to where the droids were massing were several members of the fighting club, and they were growing impatient. "Where are all the people who were shot?" asked the fighter that Evangeline had thoroughly trounced during the tournament on the first day.

"There's definitely something strange afoot here," commented the pompadour'd fighter who had served as commentator alongside Chachamaru after having been beaten by Negi in the preliminaries.

Another fighter scoffed. "We can't make any progress like this," he said, his hands beginning to burn with his fighting spirit. "I'm going to take out that Gatling droid!"

"Wait!"

"Don't be stupid, Tat-_chan_!"

But the fighter had already leapt from cover, charging directly toward the droids' front line. At the forefront of their lines was that heavy assault unit with the minigun, and standing beside it was a model that he hadn't seen before, with different equipment and a helmet with five glowing red sensors that concealed its face. It looked like a commander unit, and would make a nice second target.

The droids were reacting to the sudden attack. A female unit wearing a ground-length cloak stepped in between the fighter and the helmeted droid, spinning up and into place a six-foot metal staff that suddenly activated humming arcs of electromagnetic energy at both ends. Two nearby units leveled their assault rifles on him, and the minigun droid started to swing its heavy weapon around. Curiously, the droid commander itself did not react, other than to stare at the attacker.

But before the droids fired, and before the fighter reached them, malicious laughter suddenly cut through the air. The droid commander raised a hand and its units stood down, though the obvious bodyguard unit kept its green eyes trained on the fighter. Skidding to a halt, the fighter looked around for the source of the laughter, as did other defenders, who were cautiously peeking out from behind cover to identify where the sound was coming from.

Forming over the center of the lake was a three hundred foot hologram of the Chinese genius, Chao Lingshen. Her holographic form was cloaked in a white robe identical in style to those worn by the defenders, and an evil smile curled upon her lips.

Kazumi started to report on this turn of events, but when she did not hear her voice echo, she realized that Chao must have taken remote control of her station in order to broadcast this hologram. Though it threw her off her groove, Kazumi approved; it added to the overall drama of the situation. She wondered what all the citizens of Japan who were seeing this on their TVs were thinking; it was like a modern-day take on that _War of the Worlds_ broadcast.

"Holy crap, that's a giant Chao-lin!" Fuka exclaimed.

"_Mage Knights of Mahora, this battle is looking to be an uphill one!"_ the hologram stated, Chao's voice ringing from the speakers used to broadcast Kazumi's coverage of the event. _"I am the commander of the Martian droid armies, as well as the evil final boss, Chao Lingshen-_yo_."_

"No way, the president of Chao Bao Zi?" Katsuki muttered.

Yuuna punched the ground with her free hand in excitement. "Hell yeah, this is getting really awesome now!"

"_You showed great bravery and tremendous tactical ingenuity in the first half of the battle, as to be expected of the students and citizens of Mahora."_ Murmurs of appreciation ran through the crowd at Chao's words, but many recognized them as what they were: a nod of respect to a worthy foe, carrying beneath them the promise of destruction on the next pass. _"It seems_-ne_, that the rule allowing you to return to play with a point deduction was far too lenient. So I've come up with a new rule to test you-_yo_."_

Her image shifted, and one of her hands appeared from beneath the robe, holding what appeared to be a standard 7.62mm rifle bullet. _"Using special technology invented by the Engineering Club, a single hit from these bullets will transport you to a special disqualification room, where you'll sleep out the end of the event-_yo_."_

Cries of outrage and shock surged through the gathered defenders. Some even started picking up pieces of debris and throwing them at the motionless droids, which did not react.

"_The true punishment, I think-_ne_, comes not from being disqualified, but in knowing that you'll sleep through the climax of the final day's event."_ The hologram of the young genius returned the hand and rifle round to within the robe. _"Oh, and in case you weren't aware, my armies have already eliminated many of your officers and commanders-_yo_. So, what will you do, Mage Knights? Will you continue to uselessly resist, or will you surrender quietly?"_

Sensing her moment, Kazumi climbed back up onto her broadcasting platform, dramatically pointing at the hologram and announcing boldly, "The enemy commander has finally appeared! Chao Lingshen is hiding somewhere in the battlefield! A $10,000 reward is being offered to the person or persons who find her! This reward is not limited to participants of the game, and audience participation is greatly encouraged!"

For the briefest of instants, Chao and Kazumi met eyes, regardless of the distance and holographic interface. The Chinese girl nodded her head marginally, giving her approval of Kazumi's handling of things. The reporter grinned in response.

The defenders at the World Tree fielded mixed reactions. "One-shot disqualification is tough…" "…new rule, taking on that bot is suicide…" "…but ten thousand, that's a million yen!"

While this was going on, Yuuna was strategizing. "Hartley."

"_I'm sighted on the minigun unit,"_ he answered immediately.

"Good. When I give the word, take it. Get that commander next to it if you can. Reiko, you try to get him, too." She turned and looked at Matsunaga and Katsuki. "Be ready."

Both men nodded, and Matsunaga loaded a 40mm grenade into the modified underbarrel launcher of his assault rifle. To Yuuna's other side, Hotaru tightly gripped her lantern staff, then nodded and grabbed the ersatz Helljumper's shoulder with her free hand, signifying her readiness.

A cold chill of adrenaline ran through Yuuna's body, and before it passed, she stood up and jumped onto the wall railing she'd been using for cover, balancing easily and aiming her remaining pistol right at her classmate's holographic face. She saw Kazumi's camera fly around in front of her to get a shot of the scene, so for the documentary's sake, she depolarized her faceplate as she called out, "I accept your challenge, Chao-lin! One-shot disqualification only makes it more thrilling! I won't let Ako and Fumika's deaths be in vain!"

"Uh, they're not really dead," Akira muttered.

Hotaru smiled at the swimmer. "Let her have her fun."

But Yuuna's enthusiasm had already infected the others. "That girlie's got a point." "Yeah, it's better with the strict penalty!"

Chao smiled, and seemed to stare directly at Yuuna. _"Come then, Yuuna Akashi. Let me see the rage in your eyes."_ With that, the Chinese girl's hologram faded from existence.

_Tch, you got it, Chao-lin_, Yuuna thought, then looked to those around her. "MAHORANS! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION!?"

A deafening, wordless roar of grit and determination reminiscent of the samurai battles of olden days answered her challenge as the rallied defenders surged out of cover, already firing blindly into the droid ranks. The entire front rank of droids collapsed under the barrage while Hartley and Reiko took their shots, two vapor trails from adjacent buildings drawing straight lines between the snipers and the heads of the minigun droid and the commander. The minigun unit dropped to the ground but the commander remained standing, the thick helmet taking most of the shot.

ITSUki tore the useless helmet off his head and cast it aside, then glared balefully at the approaching Mahorans. "SLAUGHTER THEM!"

The plaza exploded in chaos.

_Tatsumiya Shrine Inner Gardens, Final Defense Line  
__1857 hours_

There had been a lull during Chao's broadcast, but the second that the defenders at the World Tree had reopened hostilities, the droids holding the fourth defense line of the Tatsumiya Shrine had pressed back on the offensive, threatening to overwhelm the outnumbered and outgunned defenders.

A stream of displacement vortices chewed up the ground in Mei's wake as the young fire mage leapt toward the shrine proper. Two armored members of Fireteam Charlie grabbed her arms and pulled her into the cover of a wall as more of their fellows fired out the doorway at the advancing hordes.

Nearby, a dark blur shot through a window, heralded by more black spheres erupting against the wall outside and the window frame. Kotaro dropped into a crouch and leaned back against the wall, dropping a sparking, partially-crushed Tanaka head and kicking it aside. "Damn it, with those guns there's no way I can get 'em all."

"There's only about thirty of us left," Rymann said calmly as he swapped magazines in his battle rifle.

"This defense line is lost!" cried out a student who had been mentally broken by the unrelenting attacks, who now curled in a ball against a pillar. Several other students and Fireteam Charlie members nearby looked scornfully at their weak-willed ally, and some debated shoving him out into the line of the droids' fire.

Kotaro growled at the weakling, but then shook his head and reluctantly added, "I hate to admit it, but this does seem hopeless."

"Sakura-_san_, you have to escape and help hold the main camp," Rymann said, producing a fiber optic cable from his gear and using it to observe the enemies outside. "We'll buy you time to escape."

Mei looked as though the man had slapped her. "What? I can't leave all of you behind!"

"You have to, Commander!" a robed student said, one of the precious few that remained of her original force. "We're not going to be able to stop them!"

Rymann stood up and turned to face her, depolarizing his helmet to let her see his face for the first time. He was no older than she was. "We all knew this was the weak link in the chain," he said. "We knew, coming in here, that they'd take this point. All we can do now is slow them down so that you can rejoin the main unit."

For this, Mei had no response. She could feel tears welling in her eyes. Though this was but a simulated battle, the knowledge that these men and women, half of whom she didn't even know the names of, were willing to sacrifice themselves for her rocked her to her very core. If not for the knowledge that none of them were going to actually die, she did not think she would be able to live with herself for abandoning them.

Kotaro stepped in, placing a strong hand on her shoulder. "We'll take the back exit," he told Rymann, then began guiding her in that direction.

Rymann nodded and kept his attention forward, willing himself not to listen as the young girl broke down in sobs as she was lead away. He focused his attention on the remaining defenders, robed students and armored Fireteam Charlie members alike. "Okay, we'll hold here and fire as they come. I don't know how much time we can buy, but we'll do what we can."

The handful of remaining defenders nodded grimly and took up positions at the front of the inner gardens, using the pillars, walls, and windows for partial cover. The droids seemed to notice the change in the defenders' mentality, for they halted their attack and allowed their apparent leader, a more ornate unit equipped with a face-concealing mask and armed with twin swords on its back, to step forward.

"Humans!" the droid announced, its voice enhanced enough for them all to hear. "Lay down your weapons!"

The response was pretty simple. One of the student defenders tossed Rymann a catalyst grenade, which he armed, and hurled in a high arc so the enemy wouldn't immediately recognize what it was. After a few moments, the hissing blue device sailed back down and attached itself to the droid commander's chestplate, detonating and casting ruined fragments of the droid across the courtyard.

"Machines!" Rymann roared back. "Come and take them!"

The droids resumed their attack immediately, and the defenders returned fire, waves of energy and bullets filling the open space between the two lines, the roar of exchanged fire audible from the command center of Echo. The heavy armor of the droids shrugged off most of the center mass fire, and even some of the headshots, as the infantry advanced relentlessly through the barrage.

A defender let out a startled cry as a bullet took him in the side of the head, engulfing him in a roiling sphere of magic. At the other end of the line, concentrated fire from a quartet of droids riddled a cosplaying Marine that had exposed herself too much, her body jerking spasmodically from the impact of so many bullets as her nervous system jammed her finger down on the trigger, riddling the walls and ceiling with all the remaining ammunition in her magazine.

"Don't let up!" Rymann roared above the noise as his sustained fire staggered a droid that had broken through the ranks. He closed and slammed his rifle into the side of its head, knocking it to the ground, where another three-round burst finished it. "Show them what Mahora is made of!"

Down at the far right of the line, another Marine slammed home the bolt of his assault rifle and looked up to resume firing, when movement drew his eye up, where he spotted a dozen Tanaka and Chachamaru-type special forces units equipped with wing-like thrust packs approaching over the wall. "Heads up!" he shouted. "Fliers!"

He and three others nearby concentrated their fire into the mass of droids, the volume of their fire burning two of the slower Tanakas out of the sky as the others rapidly split their formation to avoid the attack. The rest slipped back into a tighter formation and, utilizing their angle of attack to bypass the defenders' cover, answered with a barrage of their own that swallowed the four Marines and two other defenders in a mass of displacement vortices.

More droids collapsed into smoking heaps, but ever more units came to replace them, and in the dimness of the setting sun, Rymann could make out the demon tasked to capture the defense point, not so much muscling its way through the woods as it was completely trampling them. So much for the forest protecting them from enemy armor. A short-statured, short-haired female droid based off Chachamaru broke through the lines, eliminating three more defenders before concentrated fire destroyed it.

"Get that Warthog up!" one of the Marines shouted as he pointed to the idle machine gun vehicle sitting outside.

He, a robed student, and two more Marines broke from cover and rushed for the Warthog, firing into the enemy ranks as they moved. Return fire lifted the robed student and the Marine nearest him off their feet and hurled them back into a wall as the two other Marines made it to the vehicle.

The Marine who'd initiated the charge climbed up into the bed of the vehicle and pulled back the charging handle of the machine gun, then aimed it up and unleashed a barrage of fire onto the airborne units. The heavy .50-caliber rounds ripped through the lighter frames of the flying droids like tissue paper, catching three unawares before the others ever became aware of the danger they were in.

Meanwhile, the other Marine grabbed a sniper rifle that had been placed in the side seat and backed towards available cover, dropping behind a low wall and setting the bipod up against it. He then sighted down the scope and started drilling rounds through two or more droids at once.

Hundreds of droids were now occupying the courtyard, pressing steadily forward, forcing the defenders to give more and more ground. Two students bearing magic launchers stepped out of cover and fired their magical rockets into the droid ranks, obliterating ten in the combined blast wave. Shrapnel from the destroyed droids sliced through the air, smashing the wings off one of the airborne units and sending it spiraling into one of the outer walls, where its explosion lit the wall and surrounding shrubbery aflame.

At the rear of the droids' advance, a short-haired special forces unit flew backwards, a broken crater of shrapnel and electronics where its face should have been. Its sister unit turned to regard its fate, and started to move to safety when it, too, succumbed to an anti-materiel round. The Marine sniper, meanwhile, ducked his head in order to search for a new magazine for his weapon, that movement being the only thing that saved him from the paired cables that snapped into the wall behind him, directly through the space his head occupied a moment ago.

He looked up to find the special forces commander unit of the two he'd just destroyed standing before him, the electrified cables curling in the air around it and two bullets clenched between the fingers of its right hand. He rolled out of cover as the droid smashed its fist into the ground where he had just been, sparking a displacement vortex. Scrambling to his feet, he started running in the direction of the Warthogs as the special forces unit turned to follow, the cables attached to its back snapping forward after the Marine.

Fate intervened on his behalf as he tripped over a destroyed droid, causing the cables to pass harmlessly over him. He rolled off the downed unit and started to rise, but the droid was faster. It rushed in, delivering a powerful kick to his chest that crumpled his armor and launched him backwards into one of the transport Warthogs. As he groaned in agony from the strike, the droid calmly slammed its fist into his chest, triggering the displacement bullets it held on him.

With the sniper eliminated, the droid turned to regard the turret gunner of the Warthog, drawing its sidearm as the man eliminated a line of infantry with a burst of the weapon. As he turned to see what fate had befallen the sniper and deal with whatever threat was there, the special forces droid shot him in the chest, the force of the round pitching him backwards from the Warthog in the midst of a displacement vortex.

Rymann glanced behind him to see that Mei and Kotaro were well out of range of the enemies here, the girl flying on her broom as the boy leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Ignoring the idiosyncrasies of how it was physically possible for them to do those things, he turned back to the battle before him and shouted, "That's it, they're clear! Fall back! Fall back!"

The pitiful few remaining defenders abandoned their defensive positions and fell back toward the rear exit, toward the perceived safety of the forest where they could shake off pursuit and regroup with the others at the World Tree. No sooner had they started to move than the droids fell upon them in earnest, a wave of rifle fire enveloping them, the sheer volume obscuring them from view.

Unwilling to even attempt to use their sacrifice to slip away and escape, and knowing that it would be a futile effort anyway, Rymann discarded his battle rifle and picked up two discarded casters, then vaulted a window ledge and charged directly into the enemy ranks, firing both plasma rifle-like weapons at full discharge. "Come get me, you monsters!" he roared, his sustained fire burning down two, then three, then four droids.

As he reached the first ranks of the enemy, he discarded the caster in his left hand and slammed the remaining weapon into the head of the nearest droid with all the power he could muster, the anti-machine Jammer Ring he wore giving him the strength he needed to crush its head with the blow. Before he could turn, pain exploded in his back courtesy of a pair of droids that were firing ruthlessly into him.

The magic caster fell from suddenly-numbed fingers as he dropped to his knees, staring at the semitransparent black sphere swirling around him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The rest is up to you now, Sakura-_san_…"

_Above the Combat Zone  
__The Same Time_

Evangeline watched dispassionately as the technologically-controlled demon took its position in the center of the resonance point, and felt the invisible tug of magica, akin to the gale-force winds of a hurricane, shift in the direction of the fallen defense point and swirl around the demon, becoming visible in the form of a giant pillar of light that extended up toward the heavens.

"Well, well, one section down," she said, chuckling darkly. "What will do you now, _boya_? You're seriously outnumbered here, and those so-called 'Heroes' aren't even coming out to fight."

"I dunno," Chachazero said as she observed the battles far below her. "I still kinda have my money on those kids."

"Hmph, I don't care who wins," Evangeline scoffed, balancing her cup on the tip of her finger.

"You don't have any interest in the outcome, eh?" an older voice asked.

The vampire glanced over to see the headmaster approaching, walking on air by magic. She scoffed again. "Well, well, if it isn't the old geezer," she remarked disparagingly. "I don't care about the results."

"Are you sure?" the old man asked, a little too calmly, particularly for what was going on below them. "If Chao-_kun_'s plans succeed, you'll never see your precious disciple again."

She was silent for a moment, and in that time, a pair of the allied Zeroes buzzed past a few hundred feet below them. "If that happens," she said finally, "then so be it. It will only prove that I overestimated his talent. Now go away, you're ruining my drink."

"Oh, don't be rude," he said as he seated himself in the air, taking the bottle of sake and pouring himself a cup.

"That's mine!" Evangeline shrieked as she swiped the bottle back from him. She peered into the bottle, then glowered at the old man. "Don't you have to go stop all this?"

"If the young ones can stop it, they will," he told her. "If they can't, then I'll take full responsibility."

The vampire sighed, having really expected no better. "You're a horrible old man."

_Subway Tunnels, East Line, Exact Location Unknown  
__The Same Time_

The positions were good, the trap was set, the bait was taken, but why in hell had it been this easy? Takaki half-expected the clankers to fire on them, once or twice at the very least. They didn't, though. They didn't even act threatened.

_Does this mean the plan is working or we're in deeper shit than before?_ wondered the architect of their current scheme. Everyone else was praying that this plan would work out without consequences, and he could feel it. Funny thing about responsibility, you're always handed it when you least anticipate it.

So there he stood, in front of his loyal friends, standing between them and a clanker force of what could easily numbered more than five hundred. All silent, every soldier there, human or otherwise with their weapons sighted on their adversaries. Now was the moment of truth.

Before him stood one of the most intimidating sights he had ever witnessed in his young life. Shoulder to shoulder, armor as black as the abyss, hair of electricity, weapons of icy steel. Takaki found himself growing pale in the reflection of the droids' shades and felt a human chill run down his spine. He was scared, if only for a second or two, for his body did not have adequate time to display his symptoms before a lone Tanaka, a commander by his looks, stepped out of the main line.

"At ease troops, we want them alive," he calmly stated to the row to his flank, who in turn lowered their guns ever so slightly. The commander paused, then turned back to his troops for a moment. "Get command on the radio, let them know we've made contact in the east line," he muttered in a low frequency before turning back to face Takaki.

"Gallant defenders of Mahora!" he began, "My compliments, and congratulations. You have turned your situation of calamity into one of victory, for despite your arrogant defiance, both Commandant ITSUki and Master Lingshen have come to admire Mahoran valor and fighting skill."

Needless to say, once more, the small band of friends did not fully understand their situation. _First shooting, now talking. What the hell are they planning?_ thought Taiyo from behind his cover of a pillar.

"We have been ordered to converse with you, for it has been decided that anyone who would defend these tunnels in such a foolhardy manner will make a powerful ally," stated the commander with a little more energy in his voice than they had heard the others speak with. This offer was an important one, but an offer that still made Takaki chuckle a little.

"Now why on earth would we help you Martians? You didn't honestly travel all this way just to chat with us little old humans right?" he answered in a mocking tone that would do his _senpai_ proud.

"Use your reason human, we know you are not as stupid as you look," shot back the commander, a hint of irk in his voice. "Think of your troops, think of their well-being. Despite your several insults, the ones above are prepared to forgive all, and more to reward your service…"

The commander looked to the side for a moment or two before continuing, "You fight for your city? Keep it. You fight for your comrades? We will make you and your troops richer than any simple prize money can. You fight for the sake of game points? All will see your magnificent skill and battle points at the top of the list. Gallant defenders of Mahora, your victory will be complete, if you would lay down your arms and grant us access to your tunnels."

_This deal is bogus,_ thought Mikuru, Kazuki, Yukimura, Taiyo and Takaki in unison. The clankers obviously figured them for a much larger force than they really were. Finally, some luck.

Takaki stood there, considering the absurd and obvious choice before him. Unlike his prior state, it's not fear that grips him, but restlessness, a heightened sense of things. The echo of small generators and servomotors whisper through the tenebrous tunnels, composing an eerie symphony of white noise. His vision continuously adjusting, as the light beyond the exit beginning to fade beyond the horizon so far away.

"Perhaps...a leader who knows what they're doing wouldn't be so bad after all," he replied with a smile to the commander, who nodded likewise in return.

"Then you will kneel, and pledge your allegiance to the true savior of the day?"

Takaki hesitated, a pause to consider what he was about to do. There was no need, the choice between what's smart and what's right was the same. His mind was made up as he shook his robes to drop what ammo he had left on him and as he placed his own rifle on the ground beside him. A knot of excitement formed in his gut as he dropped to his knees and bowed to the commander. "My men and I are in unanimous decision, we surrender."

If the commander could smile, it would be beaming with an overwhelming sense of victory as he raised his hands to signal his troops, and as one they lowered their weapons fully into non-danger mode.

However, even with their victory so clear, they could not see the smirk on Takaki's face. Nor could they ever hope to understand the complex decisions of humans. And because they could not understand, they could not be prepared.

"MIKURU!"

A small tower of cardboard boxes toppled over, and out sprinted the small brown-haired girl. The movement was too quick for the enemy lines to clearly make her out, or the power staff she wielded. Using Takaki as a sort of trampoline, the Tanaka commander could not issue an order before she had reached him. Sailing through the air, she thrust the staff into the commander's chestplate, releasing the last of its stored up energy into the unfortunate unit and those around him. The magical explosion spread outward, sending the forward lines sailing backward into every line to their rear. The ones that weren't quite knocked over scrambled frantically to retrieve their fallen weapons to mount any sort of counter attack.

Takaki rose to his feet and began picking off those left standing. He waited exactly three seconds before whistling in a high pitch, signaling Taiyo, who quickly sprinted behind the farthest cover to find Kazuki, waiting with the launcher. "Make it count, buddy!"

The thin young man said nothing as usual and aimed steadily, for his target was small and far away. Kazuki took a quick breath as he saw the spot in the farthest corner, exhaled, and squeezed the trigger.

The rocket's light illuminated the tunnel as it screamed above the countless Martian soldiers, flying straight and true directly into its target, detonating into a spectacular explosion akin to fireworks. As the multi-colored flames died down, one could make out that the wall had been completely removed and all that remained was the pipes beyond that were visibly beginning to crack under the sudden pressure. Jets of water were already spraying in small amounts into the tunnel.

The burst of color and magic had obviously distracted the would-be hero squad into realizing it was a nice time to get out of the subway. "Time to go!" Takaki called first to Mikuru, who was still watching the spectacle, and then to Taiyo who was heading to the exit at a moderate pace.

"Run! Run! Fucking Run!" cried Yukimura, leaping up onto the platform and beginning his dash up the stairs.

Seeing this, Kazuki's left eye twitched. "Damn coward," he muttered to himself, sprinting after him, but stopped upon seeing that Mikuru was the only one not moving. The impending flood wasn't what troubled him, but the clanker who had gotten back up, its weapons trained on his dear friend. _Shit,_ he quickly thought, turning and darting towards his spaced out friend.

It is unsure of what sound snapped Mikuru back to reality, the bang of the first enemy gunshot or the crunch of the pipes finally giving way, though it could feasibly have been just the shock of Kazuki tackling her to the ground before any harm could reach her, the offending bullet cutting past Kazuki's temple. Mikuru looked up at Kazuki with surprise. "Wha-? You're hur-"

Kazuki didn't let her finish, he yanked her up with all his might and shoved her behind him. "It's nothing, hurry Miku-_chan_!" she heard him whisper, not allowing her to look back as he kept her moving towards the exits. Magic rounds whizzed all around the pair, but neither bothered to gander behind.

The two thought there'd be no end to the maelstrom of enemy fire that nipped at their heels, many missing only by centimeters. Kazuki made a point to stay between her as they ran across the tracks to the platform, but made his best attempts to dodge the bullets all the same. Kazuki felt the blood from his scratch beginning to run down into the corner of his eye. He blinked rapidly to prevent it from hindering him in anyway. He just kept moving, just kept shoving Mikuru closer and closer to the exit stairs.

"Hurry, get moving!" called Taiyo, poking up his head from the moderate cover of the stair railing. "We're not losing anyone down here! You two hear m-"

The concrete finally gave way to the building pressure, forcing the last of the debris out and allowing the surging current to race out without opposition. The torrent crashed heavily into the middle ranks of the strike force, sweeping away the droids in the surging waters. As though not learning any previous lessons, both Kazuki and Mikuru turned to admire their work.

"HURRY DAMMIT!" screamed both Takaki and Taiyo to the distracted couple, beckoning hysterically. Tanaka units sprinted frenziedly down the railway in hope to outrun the trap, and no longer cared much for a handful of students. Now was as fine a chance as they were ever going to receive. But as Kazuki pivoted to grab Mikuru and finally get out of the quickly sinking sub-station, his peripheral vision saw a lone Tanaka, a commander unit that was none too keen on escaping, raising his pistol.

"Execute Order 17...no survivors," could be barely heard.

"Fuckin A…" muttered Kazuki, shooting his hand to Mikuru's shoulder and shoving her with all of his possible might to the ground.

He barely felt any pain as the two bullets bored deep into his neck and chest; it stung, but not to the degree he anticipated. He looked down at the tearful Mikuru, and shrugged. "I don't know why I did it either, but stay safe," he said, grinned as the abysmal sphere fully enveloped him.

"KAZUKI!" cried Mikuru, lunging toward at her savior but going nowhere but into the restraining arms of Taiyo and Takaki.

"He's gone, Miku-_chan_! But not dead! You'll see him again! Let's get going!" said Taiyo, attempting to calm the struggling young girl. But to no avail, she continued kicking, thrashing, and calling out to yet another that had vanished from their plane of time.

They had just reached the upper stairs when the current finally crashed into the lower exit. Excess water splashed upwards and knocked the fleeing friends of their feet, whilst inside the tunnels the last remaining Tanakas were swept away into the lower subways.

The three panted, their bodies soaked with both flood water and sweat, but remained silent even after they had caught their breaths on account of the sobbing Mikuru. Takaki glanced to Taiyo, "Where's Yukimura? He didn't run away did he?"

Taiyo shook his head. "No, he went up ahead to check if it's clear. I'm not sure where we are."

It was quiet for some moments after, minus the sounds of battle raging throughout the city. Suddenly, the three heard a muffled crunching sound of metal on cement, beneath the water. Only the two boys stood, and retreated a few steps up the stairs, unsure of what to expect. Mikuru, now silent, with neither sob nor breath to be heard, sat motionless. Her eyes slowly opening to stare at the water, a stare that any person could feel the hate in.

A silhouette surely became visible after a few seconds and as it emerged was revealed to be a lone Tanaka. A commander unit, the very same commander from before. Its left elbow joint was twisted and useless, and its visor was battered and bent. Several sparks spurted from an exposed crack in its neck as it rose, a slight twitch in its right leg. The trap had done its job without question, but this one was tougher, with a purpose to serve.

"E-e-exe-te..-der 17, n-..sur..vivors. R-ger, roger," it said, raising its right arm, its hand positioned in a way that would suggest that it assumed it still held a pistol. Such was not the case when it squeezed its index finger towards its palm. "Er-r-ror...targ-t n-t..s-silenc-.."

Faster than the two boys could blink, the commander unit's head had gone from point A to point wall. They didn't even hear Mikuru's hate-filled scream, they were too shocked by her sudden attack itself. Grabbing it by its right antenna, the young girl slammed the commander's head over and over and over again into the side wall, the crunching sounds drowned out by each of her individual battle cries.

Without warning, the antenna suddenly gave way to her pulling force and ripped free from its head. It stumbled to the ground, more sparks than before spraying from it. Disoriented, it could do naught but sputter and gibber, "Errooooor...E-E-Errrrrrrror!"

But even that was not enough, as Mikuru mounted the chest of the damaged droid and began pounding both of her clenched fists against the already dented face-plate. Again and again she pummeled the enemy that was no longer even defending itself. Her knuckles now beginning to bloody, each strike stained her foe. Blinded by rage, she did not relent. Again and again.

The last strike she dealt caved the very face of the commander in but not without breaking her right hand. Mikuru screamed with pain and anger, rising to her feet in the process. And with a final, "FUCK YOU!" she stomped the face completely inward, crushing its center chip and causing it to finally 'die.' There she stood, clasping her crippled hand, watching her own blood pool around the commander's head as it dripped from her.

She sighed heavily and fell backwards as her world went black.

_Command and Control Center, Defense Point Charlie  
__1857 hours_

Shrill alarms filled the consoles, numerous holographic displays showing the demon at the now-enemy-held Defense Point Delta and the pillar of light that surrounded it. Another display showed a satellite image of the battle, with the brilliant illumination of the World Tree in the center, and the single dot of the captured resonance point glowing to the northeast.

"Delta has gone silent," Natsume reported. "Command and control net functionality down to twenty percent."

"Ground control, what's going on down there?" Professor Akashi demanded. "We have to stop those droids!"

Another holographic screen popped up, showing a suit-clad Arlington Magic Society mage, one of the field commanders at their defense point. _"It's no use, Akashi-_sensei_! They're attacking out of the sewers and subway; we just don't have enough men to stop them!"_

"_Shit, they've broken through!"_ another voice clamored on the display.

The video feed rocked violently following some kind of explosion, then cut out entirely.

"Defense force losses have exceeded seventy percent!" another technician reported.

Akashi looked toward another feed that displayed all of their remaining defense forces, a little over a hundred robed students and armored Marines, clustered around the outer plaza below the church and on nearby rooftops, their final defensive line. The casters and wands and staves of the defenders glowed with charged energy as the Marines tightly gripped their live weapons. Some signal was given, and all of that stored firepower was unleashed in a screaming wave of power and bullets and explosive charges that slammed full-on into the advancing demon, obscuring it from view.

Everyone held their breath as the dust cloud roiled in place, waiting to see if the demon still stood, praying that the volley had been enough to bring it down. Slowly, the smoke began to clear, and behind the obscuring screen, the demon was battered, but still very much alive. It was also holding a charged beam attack, which it now unleashed in full upon the plaza, the illumination of the attack overloading the light filters of the recording device, filling the screen with a white glare.

"_We've lost the Ogetsu defense line!"_

"_Beason's team destroyed!"_

Akashi turned to face a Fireteam Charlie radio operator, their link to the other defense points. "Reinforcements?" he asked.

The radio man shook his head. "Bravo is struggling under enemy assault, Echo's reserves are reinforcing Alpha, and Delta has fallen. We're on our own."

Cursing, Akashi turned away from the radio man and looked down at the tactical map before him, which showed an ever-diminishing number of blue dots around and within the church, and a swarm of red ones moving in to surround them on all sides.

Another beam attack from the demon struck the church, rocking the building and sending those inside who were not seated stumbling. Nearly all the screens and consoles went dead.

"Command net down!" Natsume wailed.

Outside, on the roof of a building adjacent to the church, three defenders scanned the advancing droids for a good place to launch an attack. Sudden movement drew their attention to the darkening sky, where they noticed three airborne droids, two of the special forces Chachamaru-replica models, and one Tanaka that seemed to be much bulkier than any of its ground-based counterparts.

The defenders immediately opened fire on the three droids, unaware of their intent and unwilling to find out. The Tanaka droid continued on toward the church unabated, but the two feminine models swooped down below their line of fire and answered the defenders' spray-and-pray tactic with precision fire, eliminating all three of them in under a second.

Back inside, Akashi noticed a peculiar motion in the enemy forces at the same time Natsume shouted in alarm, "Defensive perimeter breached! They're heading right for us!"

"Damn!" Akashi shouted, reaching for his backup wand as the skylights overhead shattered, allowing the Tanaka droid to plummet into the chapel. In the brief instant he had to look up at it, he noticed the additional bulk added to the droid in what appeared to be a large number of satchel charges.

Then the droid suicide bomber set off its displacement charges, the combined effect of the blast engulfing the entire church and all its occupants.

_Location Unknown, Somewhere Within the Battle Area  
__1858 hours_

"Chao-_san_," Satomi called out, drawing the Chinese genius' attention from the passing clouds. "We've captured points Delta and Charlie. Resonance fields are active."

Chao smiled and flexed the fingers of her left hand. "That's excellent news-_ne_." Silvery currents of air began to wrap around her arm, culminating in a glowing silver orb in what appeared to be a bracer on her wrist. She raised her wrist up level with her face, watching the air swirl and twist. "Now, let's put an end to all this…"

The magically-laced air currents coalesced into a sphere in the palm of her hand, which she clenched her fist around, then drew back and hurled into the sky, creating a stacked pattern of magic circles that pierced into the gathering clouds. Thunder rumbled on a night that was not scheduled to have rain, and the clouds below began to swirl and spiral into a specific pattern.

Chao smiled.


End file.
